Life in San Francisco
by lazylass
Summary: I couldn't really find any Annabeth living in San Fran stories, so I wrote one... Basically Annabeth's life in San Fran with her parents after the war. After some thinking, I decided to continue it. Now a reading the books fic. My first story, so don't judge too harshly! Sorry if Annabeth is OOC
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Rick Riordan does.**

Annabeth woke up to the sound of her alarm clock. She checked the time, 7:00. 'Oh no!' She thought. She got dressed quickly in her usual camp T-shirt and jeans and rushed down the stairs. Seeing her camp T-shirt, she reminded herself to IM her boyfriend, Percy, later.

"Hi, Dad! Bye, Dad!" Annabeth yelled as she went out the door. She didn't want to be late for her first day at her new school in California.

Her dad had moved to San Francisco to be closer to a biplane he owned in Crissy Field. Annabeth's mom was a completely different topic. She was actually Athena, the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy. So that made Annabeth a demigod, half human- half god.

When Annabeth was little her dad got married to a mortal, Helen, who had twin boys, Matthew and Bobby. Her step-mom wasn't very nice to her so she ran away at age seven. She met two other demigods, Thalia, daughter of Zeus, and Luke, son of Hermes, and they helped each other reach Camp Half-Blood, a camp for demigods. She lived there for five years, before meeting Percy Jackson, a son of Poseidon. He convinced her to try and live with her parents again, and she did more-or-less for the next couple years. Now she lived in San Francisco with them.

* * *

As Annabeth approached the front doors to her school she was awestruck by the architecture. The building was four stories tall and had a huge field in which people were just lounging around, because they didn't want to go inside yet. She hurried up the stairs so she could get her new schedule and locker.

"Hi. My name is Annabeth Chase, I'm a new student. I was wondering if I could get my schedule and locker information."

"Hi Annabeth. My name is Mrs. Points, I hope you have a wonderful year here! Good luck with all of your classes!" Mrs. Points said as she gave Annabeth everything she needed. "Oh, before I forget, you need to tell me which two electives you would like to do. Here is a list with all of the choices."

Annabeth looked at the choices and smiled. "Can I do Greek and architecture?"

"Of course." Mrs. Points filled in the empty spaces in Annabeth's schedule with the appropriate classes. "You're lucky. Those two classes fit perfectly in your schedule."

"Thank you, Mrs. Points. Have a nice day." Annabeth smiled and waved goodbye.

As Annabeth walked to her locker, she looked around at everyone in the halls. She heard whispers, probably about her, but she didn't care. She finally found her locker, and decided to take a peek at her schedule:

**English- room 410  
Math- room 308  
Architecture- room 102  
~Lunch~  
Science- room 214  
History- room 404  
Greek- room 310**

'Ok,' she thought, 'I need to ask for directions, great.'

Annabeth slowly walked up to one of the more friendly-looking girls in the hall. She had wavy, dark brown hair, midnight blue eyes, and a pretty face, but Annabeth could tell she wasn't stuck-up, like others might be.

"Hi, my name is Annabeth. I'm new here, and I was wondering if you would be kind enough to show me to my classes."

The girl smiled, "Sure. I love helping new people find their classes. My name is Alison. What is your first period?"

"English in room 410," Annabeth replied.

"Me too!" Alison exclaimed. "Let's walk together."

"If you want to," Annabeth said happily.

The two girls chatted all the way to English, they found out they have a lot in common. Annabeth was surprised to find out Alison loved architecture almost as much as she did, and her worst class was also English.

As they walked into the classroom, they saw two seats next to each other and grabbed them right away. Annabeth was so happy she met someone so nice and helpful, 'maybe this won't be so bad,' she thought.

"Hello, class, my name is Mr. Brown, I look forward to teaching you this year," the teacher greeted. He went on to explain exactly what his expectations for this class were.

The bell finally rang and allowed them to walk to their next class.

"Annabeth, what's the rest of your schedule?" Alison asked.

"Ummm, math, architecture, science, history, then Greek," Annabeth recalled.

Alison looked excited, "We have almost all of our classes together, except when you have Greek I have Spanish."

"Awesome! This is going to be a fun year!" Annabeth said.

Math pretty much went the same way as English, they were introduced to the teacher, Mrs. Shultz, and introduced to everything they would be learning. They learned later on in the week they would take a test to see how much information they retained from the year before.

"Glad that's over," grumbled Alison, "but now it's architecture!" She brightened.

"I can't wait to see what the class is like," said Annabeth. "I wonder if it will be fun, like, drawing new ideas for buildings, or stupid, I guess it depends on the teacher."

They walked inside the classroom and saw all the drawings. "I think your first idea is right," Alison said.

The classroom's walls were covered in brightly colored sketches of the most amazing buildings she had ever seen. 'But," she thought to herself, 'they are nothing compared to Olympus.' After the Titan war, Annabeth worked on rebuilding the amazing city, and now it was even better than before.

"Good morning, I am Mrs. Miller, your architecture teacher. Is there anyone in this class who has already had the chance to design anything? Anything at all?" The teacher inquired.

Annabeth looked around, she didn't see anyone raising their hands. The teacher looked disappointed. Slowly, she put her hand in the air. The teacher smiled at her.

"What exactly did you design?" Mrs. Miller inquired.

" I helped design the plans for Olym- I mean my mom's house," Annabeth corrected herself quickly.

"Wonderful!" Mrs. Miller exclaimed. "Do you still have the blueprints?"

"No, I threw them away last year," Annabeth lied.

"Pity," Mrs. Miller frowned. "I was hoping I could see them. Anyways, let's start the class by drawing a building. It can look like anything, as long as it is recognizable. You may get started."

Annabeth got started right away. She decided to just copy one of the buildings from Olympus. With about five minutes left in the class, she finished.

Annabeth looked over at Alison's paper and grinned. "That looks professional," she stated.

"No, it's not that good, yours is so much better," Alison said, while looking longingly at Annabeth's drawing.

The bell rang. The two girls dropped their work off at Mrs. Miller's desk and rushed to lunch.

"Can you help me find my friend, Kylie?" Alison asked.

"Sure, what does she look like?" Annabeth wondered.

"She's pretty tall, maybe an inch taller than you, and she has straight, long blonde hair. Never mind, she's over there in the corner." Alison pointed at a pretty girl waving at her, motioning for her to come over.

"Hey Alison, who's your new friend?" Kylie asked.

"Annabeth, she just moved here from New York. Annabeth, this is my best friend Kylie," Alison introduced.

"It's nice to meet you, Annabeth," Kylie smiled widely, "it's not everyday a person is worthy enough to become our new friend."

Annabeth looked at Alison weirdly.

Noticing Annabeth's expression Alison said, "Don't worry, she's only joking."

"So what classes do you have left today, since we obviously don't have any morning classes together?" Kylie asked, changing the subject.

"Science, history, Spanish," Alison recalled.

"I have the same except I have Greek not Spanish." Annabeth stated.

"Great! I have the same classes as you do, Annabeth. Why did you choose Spanish, Alison?" Kylie questioned.

"I don't know. I thought it would be easier, I guess." Alison said.

"Maybe for you," Annabeth remarked. Then she bit her lip; she didn't mean to say that out loud.

"What do you mean?" Alison inquired.

She made up a story quickly, "Oh, I'm half Greek, so it's easier for me to learn Greek than it is Spanish, and English for that matter," Annabeth muttered the last part under her breath.

"That's so cool! Is your mom or dad Greek?" Kylie asked.

"My mom. But when I was a baby my parents separated so I don't see her that much," Annabeth informed her.

"Oh, that's sad," Alison said.

Annabeth decided the topic was getting depressing, so she changed the topic to something else. "So how long have you guys lived here?"

"All of our lives," Alison groaned.

"It's not that bad," Kylie scolded Alison, "it just gets boring."

As they continued to talk about life in San Francisco, Annabeth found she like them a lot.

* * *

The next two periods went by quickly, and Annabeth found she was really excited for Greek. She and Kylie walked towards the classroom together laughing about something Alison told them. They walked in the door and took seats in the front of the class.

"Hello, class. Good afternoon," the teacher said brightly. "My name is Mrs. Sakellis. I hope you all want to learn Greek, because that's what we are here for. Since you chose this class, I expect you to try your best, even if it's not good. Now, in order to learn Greek we must learn about the history of Greece as well. Do any of you know anything about the Greek gods and goddesses?" Mrs. Sakellis inquired.

Annabeth laughed silently, 'If only you knew,' she thought. She saw most of the class raise their hands, and she proceeded to do the same.

"Wonderful! Can someone name a few?" She looked at her class list, "Kylie Kennedy?"

Kylie looked like she was trying to remember something on the tip of her tongue, "Ummm, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades," she offered meekly.

"Correct!" Mrs. Sakellis wrote the names on the board. "Now there are ten more main gods and goddesses, I'll pick a hand."

Annabeth's hand shot up, she could do this in her sleep. Luckily the teacher picked her. "Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Dionysus, Hermes, Demeter, Hera, Hestia, and Hephaestus," she said quickly.

"Also correct! Can anyone tell me why there are fourteen names on the board when there are only twelve Olympians? Mrs. Sakellis asked.

Annabeth's hand was in the air again.

"Can you tell me your name?" Mrs. Sakellis questioned, while pointing at Annabeth.

"Oh, sorry. My name is Annabeth Chase. Hades was technically not an Olympian because he lived in the underworld and not on Olympus and Hestia gave up her throne for Dionysus," Annabeth answered.

"Right again, Miss Chase. I don't suppose you can tell me what they were gods and goddesses of, can you?" Mrs. Sakellis said doubtfully.

"I can try," Annabeth told her, "Zeus, god of the sky, Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy, Poseidon, god of the sea, Hades, god of the underworld, Aphrodite, goddess of love, Apollo, god of prophecy, Artemis, goddess of the hunt, Hephaestus, god of the forges and fire, Dionysus, god of wine, Hestia, goddess of the hearth, Hera, goddess of marriage, Hermes, god of travelers and thieves, Ares, god of war, and last but not least, Demeter, goddess of agriculture." Thinking of all the gods and goddesses made her miss Camp Half-Blood, and especially Percy.

"Wow! You're the first person ever in my class to get all of them right on the first try!" Mrs. Sakellis sounded excited.

The rest of class was uneventful, and before Annabeth knew it, the bell rang and school ended.

"Wow, you really know your Greek mythology, Annabeth!" Kylie sounded impressed as we left the classroom. "Let's go find Alison and we can tell her how you're awesome at Greek."

"Okay, I guess, but it's not that big of a deal," Annabeth shrugged.

"Yes it is, now I finally have a smart friend to help me study." Kylie said. "Alison! Hey, Alison! Over here! Guess what?"

"What?" Alison asked sounding amused.

"Annabeth is really, really smart and is gonna help me pass all my classes!" Kylie shouted excitedly.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but didn't argue. The trio quickly left the school and said goodbye as they parted ways.

* * *

When Annabeth arrived at home, her brothers were in the living room playing with their robots. She ignored them and went upstairs to do her homework. Three hours later she finished and decided to IM Percy after dinner.

"Oh goddess, accept my offering. Show me Percy Jackson in New York."

Percy was sitting on his bed examining riptide, his sword, "Hey, seaweed brain!" Annabeth shouted.

Percy jumped, and Annabeth started to laugh, "I miss you, wise girl," Percy said. "How's your new school?"

"It's okay, I guess. There are some really nice people, but I miss being near you," Annabeth said truthfully.

After the war, Annabeth went to Goode High School with Percy in New York so she could watch the rebuilding of Olympus, but now that it was done, she moved back in with her family.

They continued to catch up, but when Annabeth saw Percy yawn, she looked at the clock and yelped.

"Percy! Why didn't you tell me you were tired? It's midnight your time!" Annabeth said angrily, "you need to go to bed! Good night, seaweed brain."

"I wanted to talk to you," Percy mumbled, "good night, wise girl." He smiled and broke the connection.

Annabeth smiled to herself, and got ready for bed as well. 'Life in San Francisco might not be that bad,' was her last thought as she fell asleep.

**A/N: This is my first story, so constructive criticism is appreciated. If people think it is good, then I might continue, but I'm not too sure... Reviews are very helpful!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to my 2 reviewers, you guys made me continue this story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians**

Over the next few weeks, Annabeth, Alison, and Kylie became really close. Annabeth didn't even have to fight monsters that much. After the war, monsters didn't target the demigods as often.

Before they knew it, winter break was coming and Annabeth went to visit New York.

She spent most of break with Percy, making up for the time they spent apart. But before they knew it, break was over and Annabeth had to go back to San Francisco.

As Annabeth walked into school the Monday after break, she was excited to see Kylie and Alison again.

"Annabeth! Hey! We missed you so much over break!" Alison yelled when she saw her friend.

Annabeth smiled and walked over to the two grinning girls. "I missed you too."

"No you didn't," Kylie remarked, "you were too busy with your secret boyfriend, who I am not even sure is real, by the way, to even think about us."

"Maybe, but I still missed you guys," Annabeth insisted.

"Anyways," Kylie interrupted, "guess what I got for Christmas."

"It was nothing important, just a new book that came out a couple months ago," Alison shrugged.

"Well, yes, but what was in it was really weird," Kylie argued.

"Hold on a moment, I feel like I'm missing something," Annabeth said confused.

"So for Christmas I got this book called _The Lightning Thief_ and it doesn't sound weird, but when I read it, there was a character really similar to you, and I think it's more than just a coincidence, but Alison doesn't," Kylie told her.

Kylie faced Alison, "come on, the author even described her right, and she has the same name!" She protested.

"I bet lots of people look like that, right, Annabeth? And it's not an uncommon name," Alison disagreed.

"There's also the fact that sometimes she goes off looking worried, then comes back out of breath and breathing deeply," Kylie said.

Annabeth blushed when she remembered the times she had to go kill a monster, "why don't we just read the book together, and decide later," Annabeth suggested.

"Ok," they both immediately agreed.

"How about we meet at my house for a sleepover on Friday, and don't forget the book, Kylie," Annabeth reminded.

"Great idea, Annabeth," Kylie said, and Alison nodded agreeing with her.

They hurried off to class so they wouldn't be late.

* * *

The day was normal, again, until history class. Class was almost over and everyone had finished their work when the teacher, Mr. Stevens, decided to make an announcement.

"May I have your attention, everyone? As you may have seen on the board, on Thursday and Friday we will be having a special treat, in honor of our Greek and Roman unit. Two specialists will be coming to teach us something very unique, many of you will think it's boring, but some of you will be fascinated. Now I won't tell you what it is, but please wear comfortable clothes those days. You are dismissed."

Everyone hurried off to lunch wondering what the "surprise" was going to be.

The rest of the week went by really slowly for Annabeth; she kept worrying about what was going to be revealed in the book.

Nevertheless she kept up her good grades in all of her classes, while trying to not let her friends know how much the book worried her.

* * *

On Thursday she finally had something to distract her from worrying about Friday: the history surprise.

She hurried into class wondering what the huge surprise was, closely followed by Kylie and Alison, who were telling her to slow down.

"Hello everyone, and welcome to class, don't get too comfortable, we are traveling to the surprise," Mr. Stevens said, "follow me." He smiled and left the room.

The class followed him until they stopped in front of the gym's door, "inside, please," Mr. Stevens commanded.

The class listened and they filed inside whispering about what it could be. When they finally realized what was in front of them they all got really excited, especially Annabeth. 'I'm going to be great at this,' she thought to herself.

"Sword fighting. One of the most important things in Ancient Greece and Rome. As a special treat, the school has provided a couple sword masters to help us understand more about their way of fighting, remember, back then there were no such things as guns or bombs, they fought face-to-face, up close and personal. Everyone, meet Mr. Jason and Miss Reyna, **(A/N: I had to put them in)** they will be teaching you how to sword fight today and tomorrow."

Everyone looked around excitedly, talking about the new plans for the week.

"Everyone pay attention to the teachers," Mr. Stevens commanded. Everyone got quiet to listen to Jason and Reyna as they explained the basics of sword fighting.

"Okay," Mr. Stevens said, "Any volunteers to go first?" Almost immediately Annabeth watched the jocks and popular people stand up and push each other to the front. She rolled her eyes and sat back, thinking about how funny it was going to be to watch them make fools of themselves.

An hour later, all three girls walked out of the class laughing because one person was being stupid and almost cut his foot off. Luckily, the sword only skimmed off the top of his shoe. Annabeth and Kylie didn't have to go today, but they were guaranteed to go tomorrow. Alison did have to go, but she did okay, not doing amazingly well, but not looking stupid as she held the sword.

"I can't wait for you guys to go tomorrow," said Alison, "I can't wait to laugh at you as much as you did to me!"

"I don't know," Kylie replied, "I mean, I've never tried, so could be awesome, I just don't know yet."

Alison and Annabeth laughed at her, knowing that she was only kidding.

"And I bet Annabeth is good! If I'm right about the book." Kylie added.

"You wish you were right about the book," Alison said.

"Stop talking about the book until Friday, then we'll settle this matter," Annabeth reminded them.

"Yeah, yeah," They both grumbled.

"Ok, let's get to math, Alison," Annabeth said. "See you at lunch, Kylie!"

* * *

The next day, Annabeth slowly walked to school as she thought about history class and sword fighting. "I'm going to have to not do that well, I'm going to have to try to be bad," She realized. Annabeth hated doing less than her best, but she had to avoid suspicion.

As Annabeth walked into school she saw one of her friends standing by her locker. "Hey Alison, what did you write your essay about for English?"

Alison freaked out. "We had an essay?! Shit! I totally forgot about it. What you write about for yours? What did it have to be about again?"

Annabeth laughed, "I told you to write it down," she reprimanded. "It was supposed to have something to do with the English language. It could be anything, like, grammar. I did mine about the evolution of the language. And don't worry, I heard him talking to another teacher saying that he won't collect them til Monday. He just wants to see paper copies of them, so as long as you have something that looks like one it will be fine."

"Thank you, you are an angel," Alison said hugging me, "I would have failed it."

Annabeth laughed, "let's just get to class."

The day went by fast and it was time for history. Annabeth nervously walk to the gym with her friends.

"Are you excited to go today?" Kylie asked. "I know I am."

"Excited isn't exactly the word I would use. More like nervous about making a fool of myself," Annabeth lied. "Let's just get this over with."

Kylie got called up to go as one of the first people. Reyna was teaching her and she looked like she understood exactly what to do, but when she actually tried, she almost cut off Reyna's head. Luckily, because of Reyna's quick reflexes, nothing happened. Also, the swords weren't as sharp as they could be or else it would not be safe.

"Oops," She giggled as she sat back down in the bleachers next to her friends, "I guess I won't be getting an invite to fight again."

"You didn't do that bad," Alison insisted, "Just maybe next time don't try to kill our instructor."

All three girls laughed, but quickly quieted down when Mr. Stevens glared at them.

"Okay," Jason said looking at his list, "Annabeth Chase is up next." Annabeth started to walk up to the front slowly. "Hurry up, I'm not gonna run you through with this sword" He teased.

"I'm not worried about _you _doing that," Annabeth said. "So, which sword should I use?"

"Um.. I think you'll be able to handle this one, it's pretty light." Jason handed her a sword.

"What? Do you think I'm weak or something?" Annabeth said getting mad.

"No! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply anything, you're just, um, small, I guess is the word." Jason stammered.

"Calm down, Jason," Reyna said. "Though if you keep being sexist, I'll beat you up. I mean, do I look like I could? No, but I can."

Both Annabeth and Reyna laughed. "Okay,what do I do first?" Annabeth asked.

"First let's look at your stance." Annabeth immediately got into a stance pretty similar to what's right, but a little wrong. "Hm.. move your foot just a little to left left. Okay, stop, you're good. Not bad for your first time." Jason complemented.

"Thanks, so how do I, like, swing and stuff?" Annabeth pretended to be dumb.

**(A/N: I actually had a sword fighting class at school one time, but it was awhile ago, so I'm just going to skip the lesson part and go right to the fighting)**

"Okay, so the best people of the past two days are going to come up here and actually try fighting." Reyna said. She started to list off some names. Annabeth stopped paying attention because she knew she wasn't going to be on the list. Annabeth made many mistakes on purpose so she would look new to sword fighting.

"Annabeth Chase."

"What?" Annabeth broke out of her daydream of Percy. Kylie and Alison laughed and pushed her in the direction of the floor.

"Okay, you guys are going to be paired up, and whoever wins will go onto the next round, and those winners will be the finalists. whoever wins the end will fight Reyna.

Annabeth decided that she wasn't going to try hard, but she also didn't want to lose, it would be a disgrace against Athena if she gave up on a fight.

Her first opponent was really bad and she beat him pretty easily. if she had actually been trying the whole thing would have been about two seconds, but she had to pretend to be bad, and it still only took a minute. Her second opponent was better, and she pretended to falter to make him feel better about himself. But she still won. The finalists were Annabeth and Roger Blaire, some popular football jock. With Annabeth doing bad on purpose, it was pretty even. It came down to one miss by Roger which led to an opening that Annabeth quickly took to beat him.

Annabeth then decided she was being too good, and that she needed to lose the Reyna. Unfortunately, her subconscious wouldn't let her go down without an even fight. Reyna eventually beat her, but only because Annabeth realized she was actually fighting almost like she normally would and quickly gave her an opening.

"I told you she would be good," Kylie whispered to Alison as they watched Annabeth fight.

"I'm starting to agree with you, there are some suspicious things about her that are very similar to Annabeth in the book, but there's no way that's possible. I mean, Greek Gods? No. No way, Jose," Alison replied.

After school was over and they finally had a chance to talk, Alison complemented Annabeth on her fighting, "I guess I'm just natural, I've never fought with swords before," Annabeth denied.

Kylie snorted, "Are you serious? That was not natural, you definitely planned out very move that you did, and you knew how to do it. I saw many moves Jason and Reyna didn't teach us, yet you did them flawlessly."

Annabeth bit her lip, she thought she wasn't doing well, but her friends thought otherwise. She wondered why her friends weren't leaving, but then she remembered what they were doing that night at her house.

"Let's forget about it. Did you remember the book?" Annabeth changed the subject.

"Yep," Kylie said proudly, "It's in my bag."

"Great. Let's go inside and start reading," Annabeth suggested.

"Okay," the girls agreed.

They went inside and settled down in Annabeth's bedroom.

"I'll start," said Kylie, "The book is called _Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief_."

Annabeth froze when she heard her boyfriends name.

"Chapter one: **I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher**."

**A/N: So, i'm not sure how good this story is going to end up, but I never saw a story like this, so I made one. Please Review! It'll make me feel better about this idea:/ Hopefully. If you don't like it, me tell what I can do to make it better. Helpful advice is much appreciated! Updates probably won't be that constant, I do have a life! But I will try my best to update once a week. No promises, though.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians**

**A/N: Everything in the apostrophes is Annabeth's thoughts. Everything in quotation marks is said out loud. Most of the comments are in Annabeth's head because her friends don't know it's real, yet.**

**allen r: Percabeth will make an appearance, just not yet.**

**Planetgirl: When I reread the the story I realized you were right in some ways. But, I don't think I'm creative enough to come up with big conflict or whatever.**

**Thank you to my other reviewer!**

* * *

**Accidentally Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher." **Kylie read.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

'No one does,' Annabeth thought silently.

"Why?" Kylie asked, "Who wouldn't want to be descended from the gods?"

"I don't know," Alison said, "I'm sure it would be cool, but what about all the monsters?"

"It might be cool," Annabeth lied, "but they aren't real, so it doesn't matter."

"Sure they aren't real, Annabeth," Kylie said.

"Be quiet Kylie, let's get back to the book," Annabeth said, neither denying nor confirming that statement.

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: ****close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

'I wish that would work.'

**Being a half-blood is dangerous.**

'Yep.'

**It's scary.**

'Yep.'

**Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

'Unfortunately.'

"That would suck," Alison said.

"What would?" Kylie asked.

"Dying painfully and nastily, obviously," Annabeth said.

"Oh yeah," Kylie said, "that would suck."

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

'So do I.'

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.  
Don't say I didn't warn you.**

'I wish someone warned me.'

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

"Really? I thought it was Peter Johnson," Alison said sarcastically, having already read this book.

Annabeth got worried, that was Dionysus' "name" for Percy. She decided she would IM Percy whenever they took a break. 'This book might actually be real.' She thought nervously. But then she snickered in her mind as she realized she would be able to know exactly what Percy was thinking.

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

'Yes.'

**Yeah. You could say that**

"It's really sad that even he can admit it," Alison said.

"He must be really troubled, then," Annabeth said, thinking about all the times he got kicked out of school.

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"That would be so much fun!" Annabeth said.

"Only you would think that," Alison replied, "You think math homework is fun."

"It is," Annabeth argued.

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

"He got that right," Kylie said.

"He's never right," Annabeth said. She saw Kylie's triumphant look, "I mean, from what I can tell so far.."

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

"Hm.. we don't have field trips in high school," Alison realized sadly.

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

'Chiron, possibly?' Annabeth considered.

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

'Definitely Chiron.'

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

'He wished.'

**Boy, was I wrong.**

"I bet he's wrong a lot," Alison guessed.

"From what we read in the books, I would go with a yes," Kylie said.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

The three girls laughed.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

"I wish he went to our school," Alison said, "He'd make it interesting."

"Yes, it would be cool if he did," Annabeth agreed, but for a different reason.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

'Doubtful.'

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

'Poor Grover, he didn't deserve that.'

"That was mean of her," Alison frowned.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

"What a nice description," Annabeth said, thinking about how she would hold this over Percy.

"His descriptions get even better," Alison said.

"Can't wait."

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

'You almost ruined your cover!' Annabeth thought angrily.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

'I wish he did.'

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

"So do I," Alison agreed, "but not in my hair."

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

'How'd he get on probation?'

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

"I would be nice if he did, she deserved it," Kylie said, looking up from the book.

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

'Oh seaweed brain, what am I going to do with you.'

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer," Annabeth informed her friends.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"I wonder if Percy caused it," Annabeth said.

"It never says," Kylie replied.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn.**

'Nope, that's Nico.'

**She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

'Stupid Grover,' Annabeth chastised.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele,**

"Immature, much?" Alison said.

**and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

'It always does.'

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"Ooh that sucks, having your teacher think you told him to shut up," Alison said.

"You only know that because it happened to you too." Kylie laughed.

"Hm.. I don't think I ever heard this story before," Annabeth said.

"There's a reason for that," Alison said blushing, "just keep reading, Kylie."

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?**

'He's totally gonna get it wrong.'

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

'Maybe he's smarter than I give him credit for.'

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied."**

**"And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

'Talk about an insult to our parents.'

"Ha, even I wouldn't make that mistake." Alison said.

"Didn't you make that mistake in middle school when we were learning about Greek mythology?" Kylie said, her eyebrow raised.

"I neither confirm nor deny that statement."

Kylie and Annabeth laughed at her red face.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.**

"How stupid is Kronos to think a rock is a baby?" Alison wondered.

'Not stupid enough,' Annabeth thought thinking about the war. "I guess he trusted Rhea enough to give him the baby to eat without checking first."

"That's disgusting though, eating your own child? Ew." Kylie said.

"They're like hamsters," Annabeth decided.

"What?" Alison and Kylie looked at her like she was crazy.

"That's what the male hamster does," Annabeth said blushing. "I thought that was common knowledge."

"No, it wasn't," Alison said, "Please continue reading, Kylie, before i have nightmares about male hamsters eating me."

**And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

'Of course Percy would sum up a huge war into a few seconds.'

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"It would be funny if one actually did say that." Alison laughed.

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"Busted," Annabeth said.

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

"You sound like a.." Alison trailed off when she remembered Annabeth hadn't read the book yet. "Never mind."

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

'Nope, he has horse ears.'

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

'Of course not.'

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"Wow, he's amazing at changing the subject," Alison said sarcastically.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

'Close.'

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson." I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

'He doesn't want you to die, seaweed brain.'

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshiped.**

"Sounds hard." Alison frowned, "I'm glad we don't have to do that."

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

'He probably was.'

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas.**

"I don't remember hearing about that," Kylie realized.

"I guess it wasn't that important." Annabeth lied.

**We all glanced out the window. ****We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"Wow, weather really was weird," Alison agreed.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"That's obvious," Annabeth snorted.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

'Only Grover.'

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"I wish I had a mom that nice," Alison said.

"Your mom is very nice," Annabeth told her, "so is your dad, your brother on the other hand..."

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth.**

"Sure it was an accident," Annabeth mumbled.

**Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Ew."

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

'No he didn't! Stupid mortal.'

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

'Curious.'

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

"That would be so cool to be able to do," Alison sighed.

"With great power comes great responsibility," Kylie quoted.

"I didn't know you knew who Voltaire was," Annabeth said.

"I don't, I was quoting spiderman," Kylie replied.

"Oh, well, Voltaire said it first."

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

'You never say the right thing to adults.'

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

'That is what a keeper should do.' Annabeth congratulated Grover in her head.

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

"What's with the weird 'honey' thing?" Annabeth asked, "It's kind of creepy."

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

'Those are really scary.'

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

"Monster?" Annabeth asked.

"Maybe, maybe not, let's read to find out," Kylie said mysteriously.

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

'Doubtful.'

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

'Stupid seaweed brain..'

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

'What are you doing Chiron! Help him,' Annabeth was getting worried for her boyfriend.

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

"Of course it's not," Annabeth muttered.

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

'Uh oh.'

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

'Not a good sign.'

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

"There it is again," Annabeth said.

"You're right, that is weird," Kylie said.

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

'Why isn't he that polite to the gods?'

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

'He never told me about this!'

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

"Don't they get fired or something?" Alison asked.

"Yeah, it's against the law, I think," Kylie replied.

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

'I'm going to have a talk with him, later.'

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

'Definitely gonna have that talk.'

"I wish we could do that, it would be so much easier," Alison said.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

'A Fury! I'm going to kill that son of Poseidon.'

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"A pen is so random," Alison said quietly. "Why not a letter opener or something."

"Um, maybe because that's even more random?" Kylie suggested.

"Yeah, but they're like mini swords anyways."

"Shh, don't give it away," Kylie scolded.

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

"Whoomp, there it is," Kylie sang.

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"Ha, like that's natural, I learned today that it wasn't!" Kylie said.

"Except for me," Annabeth protested.

"Yeah, but you're like half god or whatever."

"No I'm not!" Annabeth insisted.

"Don't deny it, you lived through this story."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but stayed quiet, and urged Kylie to keep reading.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

"Ha, what a lousy excuse," Alison said.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

'Nope.'

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Annabeth asked.

**I said, "Who?"**

"You sound like Percy," Alison pointed out.

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

'Grover's such a bad liar, Percy is not going to believe him.'

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"Wow, Grover really is a bad liar," Alison said.

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

'Chiron is pretty good at lying though.'

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Mr. Brunner on the other hand is pretty good at lying." Kylie said. "Who wants to read next?"

"I will," Annabeth volunteered. "Chapter two:** Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death**."

**A/N: I hope you guys liked it! If you did, please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you my reviewers/followers/favorites!**

* * *

**"Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death," **Annabeth read.**  
**

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

'I bet it was Grover.'  
**  
But Grover couldn't fool me.**

'Yep.'  
**  
When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

Grover seems like a really bad liar," Kylie said. "What do you think Annabeth?"

Annabeth knew she was trying to trick her into saying something that she would regret. "Yeah, I guess. But I wouldn't know, she added forcefully.  
**  
Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"No shit," Alison muttered.  
**  
I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

'Stupid seaweed brain, how do you get that low of grades?'  
**  
I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"What does that mean?" Kylie wondered.

"It means an old drunk," Annabeth giggled.  
**  
The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

'Was Gabe really that bad?'  
**  
And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover,**

'That's sweet.'  
**  
who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange.**

'Nevermind.'  
**  
I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

'Aww, he's trying to impress Chiron.'  
**  
I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

'Good. I don't want him to die.''  
**  
The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

Annabeth gasped, how could someone treat a book that badly?

Kylie and Alison both laughed at her, "Come on, don't tell me you've never thrown a book out of rage." Alison said.

"Never, I don't want to ruin their spine! How can you treat a book like that?" Annabeth asked.

"Easy, I don't like what's in them," Kylie shrugged.  
**  
Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

'He certainly knows now.'  
**  
or Polydictes and Polydeuces.**

'Easy.'  
**  
And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

'Ehh, Greek a lot easier than that I guess.'  
**  
I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

"That feeling sucks," Kylie shuddered.

"What happened?" Annabeth wondered.

"I was playing soccer, and I fell.. Into an ant hill.."

"Ohh, that sucks," Annabeth said, thinking about the time Beckendorf got kidnapped by giant ants.  
**  
I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before.**

"No wonder he got bad grades," Annabeth mumbled before continuing.  
**  
Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

**"... worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

'Sure you're not.'  
**  
but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

'I guess I would listen, too.'  
**  
I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line— "**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her... ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again."**

'It wasn't your fault!'

**Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"I would have definitely dropped my book too," Alison stated.

"Yeah, that would suck to hear you might not live to see next fall," Kylie agreed.  
**  
Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

'I wonder why Chiron didn't find Percy.'  
**  
A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

'I feel bad for satyrs having to take exams every year, over and over again.'  
**  
"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

'Not gonna work, he can read emotions.'  
**  
I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"Even our exams aren't that long!" Kylie said.

"Even I wouldn't want to take exams for that long," Annabeth shuddered, thinking about her ADHD.  
**  
my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

"That's not gonna help Percy's self esteem," Alison said.  
**  
His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

"She so has a crush on him," Alison said.

"What makes you say that?" Annabeth asked sharply.

"Because you always make fun of your crushes when you're in middle or elementary school, duhh," Alison said.

"Oh, right I forgot that," Annabeth asked, blushing.  
**  
I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

'Not the right thing to say.'  
**  
My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But** **I was already gone.**

"That wasn't a very good way to tell Percy," Kylie said.  
**  
On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

'The gods wouldn't like that statement.'

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

'That's not a coincidence.'

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**'**Don't do it, Percy.'

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

'He did it.'

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice deadline?"**

"Yeah, not much at all, just all of it," Kylie joked.

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script,**

'I hate Mr. D for making it such a bad font.'

**which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

'Not much of a mansion.'

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"That's a little harsh," Alison said.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

'Just some monsters, no big.'

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

'It better not be what I think it is..'

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

'The Fates! I'm going to murder Percy for not telling me he saw them.'  
**  
The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

'No!'

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

'Not funny.'

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

'Why did he stay back?!'

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

'How's he alive?'

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"I bet it's Godzilla," Alison said, joking.

"No, I think it's Sasquatch.' Kylie disagreed.

"I agree with Alison," Annabeth said, catching on. "It is New York, after all."

They all laughed, but then continued reading.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

'Not good.'

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

'Everything.'

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

'Much worse. How are you alive?'

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**'It's a huge deal!'**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

'Grover needs to get over it, it wasn't his fault!'  
**  
"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

'Yes.'

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"How pleasant," Annabeth said closing the book.

"Yeah, I wonder which flowers he would like?" Kylie joked.

Alison laughed, "I don't know. Let's just finish the book. My turn to read." She took the book and opened to the right page,**"Grover Accidentally Loses his Pants."**

**A/N: The book never said if Annabeth knew about the Fates so she doesn't in my story. I'm not sure how well I wrote this chapter because I don't really like it. Hope it's okay. Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**"Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants," **Alison reads.

**Confession time: I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.**

"That was rude of him," Annabeth stated.

**I know, I know. It was rude.**

**But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"**

"That is pretty freaky, I guess," Annabeth changed her mind.

**Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom.**

**Instead of waiting, I got my suitcase, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.**

**"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.**

**A word about my mother, before you meet her.**

'She's the best.'

**Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck.**

'That's very true, sometimes.'

**Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.**

"Sounds pretty unfortunate to me," Kylie said.

**The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.**

'It's a good thing she did.'

**I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.**

**See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.**  
**Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.**

**'The only thing wrong in that statement is that Poseidon can't be lost at sea, other than that it's true.'**

**She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.**

'No, I doubt he was.'

**Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him,** **then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.**

"Ew, that would be disgusting," Kylie said.

**Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.**

**I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer** **cans were strewn all over the carpet.**

"Talk about a pig sty," Annabeth murmured.

**Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."**

**"Where's my mom?"**

**"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"**

'Rude much?'

**That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?**

**Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something**.

"Definitely not," Alison shuddered.

**He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.**

"What!" Annabeth screamed. She started yelling in Greek, cursing Gabe.

"You sure this isn't real?" Kylie asked.

"Umm, yeah. I just don't like parents abusing their kids," Annabeth said after calming down.

"Uhh huh," Kylie said, but you could tell she didn't believe it.

**"I don't have any cash," I told him.**

**He raised a greasy eyebrow.**

**Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.**

'It was very brave for Sally to do that, but she shouldn't have had to.'

**"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"**

**Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."**

**"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.**

**Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two** **guys passed gas in harmony.**

"Disgusting," Annabeth muttered.

**"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."**

**"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"**

**I slammed the door to my room, which really wasn't my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.**

**I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.**

**Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds,**

'Nothing is worse than nightmares about monsters.'

**or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.**

'I guess that might be, though.'

**But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made me promise I wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.**

**Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy?"**

**She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.**

**My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room.**

'That's so true.'

**Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad.**

**I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.**

**"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"**

'Barely, he wasn't even as tall as me.'

**Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.**

"What a nice mom," Alison said.

"Yeah, she seems pretty nice," Kylie agreed.

**We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, she ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?**

**I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.**

**From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"**

**I gritted my teeth.**

**My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.**

'Millionaires might not be all that good,' Annabeth thought, thinking about Rachel's dad.

**For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself.**

"Must have been a really good spin," Alison said.

"Yeah, that year really did suck," Kylie agreed.

**I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.**

**Until that trip to the museum ...**

**"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"**

**"No, Mom."**

"Don't lie, it'll only hurt you." Annabeth said.

**I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.**

'No it wouldn't, she's clear sighted.'

**She pursed her lips. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.**  
**"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."**

**My eyes widened. "Montauk?"**

**"Three nights—same cabin."**

**"When?"**

**She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."**

**I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.**

'Asshole.'

**I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.**

**Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"**

**"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."**

**Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"**

'Of course she was!'

**"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."**

**"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."**

"Bribing always works," Kylie said.

"That it does," Alison agreed.

**Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"**

"She shouldn't have a clothes budget!" Kylie said outraged.

Annabeth laughed, knowing how much Kylie loved shopping.

**"Yes, honey," my mother said.**

**"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."**

**"We'll be very careful."**

**Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kid apologizes for interrupting my poker game."**

**Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.**

"I wish he would," Annabeth said.

**But my mom's eyes warned me not to make him mad.**

**Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?**

**"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."**

**Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in my statement.**

"He's too dumb to know," Annabeth said.

**"Yeah, whatever," he decided.**

**He went back to his game.**

**"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"**

**For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.**

**But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.**

**An hour later we were ready to leave.**

"That was quick," Annabeth sounding impressed.

"I know, whenever my family and I go on road trips we always take forever to leave," Alison said.

**Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.**

'Get your priorities right," Kylie muttered.

**"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."**

'Like he'd be driving!'

**Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve.**

**But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.**

**Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out**.

"That's really cool," Kylie said.

**I got in the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.**

**Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets,**

"Eww," Annabeth shrieked. "I hate spiders!"

"I wonder if genetics has anything to do with it," Kylie asked innocently.

"That's a good question. Continue reading please," Annabeth said.

Alison smirked but continued reading.

**and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.**

'Like that would matter to him.'

**I loved the place.**

**We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.**

"That's so romantic," Kylie said.

**As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.**

**We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work.**

**I guess I should explain the blue food.**

**See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked** **blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop.**

**This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.**

'Percy doesn't have a rebellious streak, you have an obedience streak.'

**When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told me stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told me about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.**

"I hope she does," Alison said.

**Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.**

**"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."**

**Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."**

'He is.'

**I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.**

**"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"**

**She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."**

**"But... he knew me as a baby."**

'All demigods wish that.'

**"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."**

**I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile.**

**I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me...**

**I felt angry at my father.**

'It's not their fault.'

**Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.**

"That is a bad outcome," Kylie said.

**"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"**  
**She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.**

**"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."**

**"Because you don't want me around?"**

"That was a horrible thing to say!" Annabeth said.

**"I regretted the words as soon as they were out.**

"Good."

**My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."**

**Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.**

**"Because I'm not normal," I said.**

'That's not a bad thing, seaweed brain.'

**"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."**

**"Safe from what?"**

**She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.**

**During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.**

'Why was a cyclops watching Percy?'

**Before that—a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands**.

"Like Heracles," Annabeth said.

"Who?" Alison asked.

"Oh my gods," Annabeth muttered. "Heracles is Hercules' Greek form."

"So Hercules wasn't his actual name?" Kylie asked.

"No, his name was Heracles named by Zeus to appease Hera, not that it worked," Annabeth explained.

"Oh..."

Annabeth didn't realize it, but Kylie heard her say 'Gods'.

**In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move.**

**I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.**

'Stop thinking about yourself! Tell your mom!'

**"I've tried to keep you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."**

**"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"**

**"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."**

'The best summer camp ever.'

**My head was spinning. Why would my dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?**

**"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."**

**"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."**

**She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.**

**That night I had a vivid dream. It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.**

'Of course they were.'

**The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.**

'I wish that had been Hades.'

**I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!**

'Aww Poseidon lost.'

**I woke with a start.**

**Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.**

**With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."**

**I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean** **seemed to have forgotten.**

'Such a Poseidon thing to do'

**Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.**

**Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.**

**My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.**  
**Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.**

"How wasn't he Grover?" Annabeth wondered.

"You'll see," Kylie said mysteriously.

**"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"**

'He never thinks.'

**My mother looked at me in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.**  
**"Percy," she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"**

**I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.**

**"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"**

"What does that mean?" Asked Alison, looking at her friends.

"Don't look at me," Kylie said, "It's Annabeth who is really good at Greek."

Annabeth sighed, "It means 'Oh Zeus and other Gods'."

"Got it.."

**I was too shocked to register that he'd** **just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—**

**and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...**

**My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"**

'Listen to Sally!'

**I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.**

**She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. Go!"**

**Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.**

**Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There** **were cloven hooves.**

"Duh Duh Duhhhhhh," Alison said spookily.

"What is he?" Annabeth played dumb, knowing that Kylie would want a reaction.

"You'll find out in the next chapter," Kylie said. "I'll read. Chapter four: **My Mom Teaches Me Bullfighting**."

**A/N: I'm not sure if I'll be able to update the rest of the week because I have finals, but I'll try my best. Hope it was okay, I rushed so I would be able to update. Please review! Sorry if I made mistakes:/**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Thank you to my reviewers and followers!**

* * *

**"My Mother Teaches me Bullfighting," Kylie reads.**

'This wasn't a good day for him'

**We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.**

"That is very dangerous," Annabeth commented.

"Hey, Kylie, remember the time you forgot which pedal was which?" Allison asked laughing.

"I try not to," Kylie said dryly, and continued to read.

**Every time there was a flash of lightning, I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants.**

"That would be disgusting!" Kylie stopped reading for a moment.

**But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.**

**All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"**

**Graver's eyes flitted to the rear view mirror, though there were no cars behind us.**

**"Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you."**

"Stalker," Annabeth coughed.

**"Watching me?"**

**"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."**

**"Urn ... what are you, exactly?"**

"Yeah, what is he?" Annabeth 'asked'.

"Patience," Allison reprimanded.

**"That doesn't matter right now."**

**"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"**

'Grover's not going to like that..'

**Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"**

**I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.**

**"Goat!" he cried.**

**"What?"**

**"I'm a goat from the waist down."**

"Like a satyr from the myths," Annabeth exclaimed. "But that just can't be true."

"If we read on you'll find out..."

**"You just said it didn't matter."**

**"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"**

**"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"**

"I was right," Annabeth said triumphantly.

**"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"**

**"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"**

'Of course seaweed brain points that out...'

**"Of course."**

**"Then why—"**

**"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You started to realize who you are."**

**"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"**

"Is he a Demigod?" Annabeth asked, already knowing the answer.

"How'd you guess that?" Kylie said surprised.

"One, a Kindly one is from Greek myths, two, so are satyrs, and three, he doesn't have a dad," Annabeth explained.

"Well, I guess we aren't all geniuses like you, Annabeth," Allison laughed.

"It's simple logic."

**The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.**

**"Percy," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you to safety."**

**"Safety from what? Who's after me?"**

**"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment.**

**"Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."**

'Still don't know how Percy was able to do everything.'

**"Grover!"**

**"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"**

**I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.**

**My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.**

'Almost there.'

**"Where are we going?" I asked.**

'The best place in the world.'

**"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."**

**"The place you didn't want me to go."**

**"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."**

**"Because some old ladies cut yarn."**

'There aren't some old ladies!'

**"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."**

**"Whoa. You said 'you.'"**

**"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"**

**"You meant 'you.' As in me."**

**"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."**

"That's confusing," Allison said.

**"Boys!" my mom said.**

**She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.**

**"What was that?" I asked.**

"Yeah, what was that?" Annabeth asked.

**"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question.**

**"Another mile. Please. Please. Please."**

**I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.**

'I'm glad they made it.'

**Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill me.**

"No really," Allison said sarcastically.

**Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.**

**I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.**

'How would he know what that feels like?'

**I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."**

**"Percy!" my mom shouted.**

**"I'm okay..."**

**I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.**

**Lightning.**

'Stupid Zeus.'

**That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"**

**He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!**

**Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.**

'Ahhh Grover, he loves his food.'

**"Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.**

**I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.**

"That would be really scary," Kylie stated. "I would be way too scared to do anything."

**I swallowed hard. "Who is—"**

**"Percy," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."**

**My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.**

**"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"**

'I'm glad Thalia is back.'

**"What?"**

**Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.**

**"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."**

**"Mom, you're coming too."**

'I wish she could.'

**Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.**

**"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."**

**"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.**

**The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns …**

"Are really horns, who'd have thought," Allison said.

**"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."**

**"But..."**

**"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."**

**I got mad, then—mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.**

'Because it is a bull. The worst kind of bull'

**I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."**

**"I told you—"**

**"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."**

'He's so loyal. I love that about him, even if it's his fatal flaw.'

**I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom hadn't come to my aid.**

**Together, we draped Grover's arms over our shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass.**

'We should really cut that grass.'

**Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under wear—**

"Eww," Kylie squealed. "Why isn't he wearing any pants?"

"Obviously because he just got out of bed, duhh," Annabeth joked.

**I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.**

"He's definitely not attractive," Annabeth snorted.

**His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.**

'Oh seaweed brain.'

**I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.**

**I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's—"**

**"Pasiphae's son," my mother said.**

'Sally is very smart.'

**"I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."**

**"But he's the Min—"**

**"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."**

**The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.**

**I glanced behind me again.**

**The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the win dows—or not looking, exactly.**  
**More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.**

**"Food?" Grover moaned.**

**"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"**

**"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."**

**As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.**

**Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.**

"Oops," Annabeth laughed.

**Oops**.

"Aww, you think Percy," Kylie said.

Annabeth blushed.

**"Percy," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"**

**"How do you know all this?"**

"That's a good question." Annabeth said.

**"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."**

'She could never be selfish.'

**"Keeping me near you? But—"**

**Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.**

**He'd smelled us.**

"Not good," said Annabeth, biting her nails.

**The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.**

**The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.**

**My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."**

**I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on me. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.**

"Eww," Kylie wrinkled her nose.

**He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at my chest.**

**The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing.**

'At least he knows that.'

**So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the side.**

**The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward me this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.**

**We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.**

'Yes, you will!'

**The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.**

**"Run, Percy!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"**

**But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.**

**"Mom!"**

'Poor Percy,' Annabeth thought, 'I never knew the specific details about it.'

**She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"**  
**Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.**

"I feel so bad for him," Allison said. "His mom just died and he has no idea what to do next."

"Yeah, it wouldn't be easy for anyone," said Annabeth, thinking about how sad he had been.

**"No!"**

**Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.**

**The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.**

**I couldn't allow that.**

**I stripped off my red rain jacket.**

**"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"**

"Those are horrible insults," Allison said.

"Like you could do better," Kylie scoffed.

"Yeah I could! Umm, like, never mind I can't think of anything," Allison trailed off.

**"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his meaty fists.**

**I had an idea—a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all.**

**I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.**

**But it didn't happen like that.**

'Of course it didn't.'

**The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge.**

**Time slowed down.**

'I hope he doesn't mean literally.'

**My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.**

**How did I do that?**

"That's pretty amazing," stated Annabeth.

**I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.**

'I wonder if Thalia felt that.'

**The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.**

**The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.**

'That was very smart of him to realize.'

**Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.**

**"Food!" Grover moaned.**

**The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might.**

**The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then—snap!**

'So that's how he got the horn!'

**The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife.**

**The monster charged.**

**Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.**

'Wow, that was really good for someone who didn't know anything about the Greek gods.'

**The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate—not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.**  
**The monster was gone.**

**The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish.**

**I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farm house. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover—I wasn't going to let him go.**

'So loyal...'

**The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's.**

Annabeth blushed, and her friends looked at her suspiciously.  
**  
They both looked down at me, and the girl said, "He's the one. He must be."**

**"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring him inside."**

"So that's the girl you think I am." Annabeth stated.

"You have to admit," She does seem like you," Allison said.

"Whatever, I have to go to the bathroom I'll be right back." Annabeth left to go to the bathroom to IM Percy.

"She's keeping something from us," Kylie whispered as soon as Annabeth left.

"Even I can tell. We just need her to admit it," Allison replied.

The two girls devised a plan to get Annabeth to tell them the truth, but they didn't realize a big surprise was in store for them.

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**A/N: I hope it was okay, I hurried it so I could post tonight. I did really well on my finals, so I decided to post tonight rather than tomorrow. Hope you guys enjoyed it! Please review! **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I jut realized that I forgot to do the disclaimer for the previous three chapters. Oh well.. I'll put it in this one. sorry for the long wait, I haven't really felt motivated to write recently. But I wrote a chapter tonight, and if I have time, I'll do another one this weekend. I hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians**

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Kylie knew Annabeth was hiding something. She wasn't exactly sure what, but she knew it was big. "So, Alison, what do you think?" She asked.

"I don't know. They have a lot in common, but doesn't the Annabeth in the book live in, like, Virginia or something?" Alison replied.

"I guess, but it's only her family, and this was when she was twelve, she could have moved," Kylie protested.

"I think we should just ask her," Alison said. "If we ask her in all seriousness, maybe she'll give us a straight answer."

"That's doubtful, but you never know. okay, how about when she walks out of the bathroom, we ask her, and if she doesn't tell us, we aren't going to let her read the book and we go home."

"That's kind of extreme," Alison said alarmed. "I was with you until you said we go home."

"Okay, we won't go home, but she is definitely keeping something from us, and i want to find out what it is." Kylie stubbornly said. Then she got an idea. "You know that thing that half-bloods do in the story? IM-ing? I bet if it's she's the Annabeth from the story, she is in there right now talking to Percy."

"What do you want to do about it? Go listen and see if she's talking? If she isn't that would be pretty weird." Alison laughed.

"Well, she's been in there for a long time, and I don't think she has constipation, or any other bathroom disorder." Kylie snorted.

Kylie pulled Alison closer to the bathroom door, and they listened quietly to see if they could hear anything. "I can't hear anything," Kylie said. "Let me get closer." Kylie put her ear to the door, but before she could listen, the door opened.

Annabeth stood there looking worried, "How much did you hear?" She asked.

"Nothing, we promise," Alison and Kylie stammered looking at her.

"Whatever," Annabeth said, looking resigned. "Are you guys hungry? We should take a break anyways, it's almost dinner."

Kylie's stomach rumbled and she blushed. "I guess I've been so focused on this book that I forgot about being hungry." The trio walked down the stairs and rushed to the kitchen.

"There's a note on the fridge saying that your parents and brothers will be gone for tonight because they went out to dinner." Alison said looking at Annabeth.

"Thanks, for inviting us, mom," Annabeth mumbled under her breath.

"Don't be so bitter," Alison laughed, "your mom said right here that she knew you'd want to stay and hang out rather go to a restaurant with your uncool family."

"Oh, oops," Annabeth laughed. "So what's in the fridge?"

"Looks like there's only some cold pizza from Domino's," Kylie moved the box around to see if there was anything behind it. There wasn't, so she took the pizza out. "It doesn't feel like much of anything is inside it." She opened the pizza box and laughed. "I was right. There's two twenties and and a note saying 'you can order anything you want'."

"Let's order some Chinese," Alison suggested. "There's a really good place not far from here."

"Okay," Annabeth agreed, "What's the number?" She reached for the phone and started to dial, but then stopped. "We should figure out what we want first." She grabbed a notepad and started writing down food items.

Five minutes later, they decided what they wanted and called the restaurant."Okay, thank you, bye." Annabeth hung up the phone, and they walked to the living room and sat down on the couch.

Annabeth picked up the remote for the TV and pressed the on button. "Do you guys want to watch a movie?" She asked them.

"Actually," Alison said looking at Kylie pointedly, "we wanted to talk to you about something important."

"Is this about the book, or something?" Annabeth asked. "Because I have told you numerous times that it isn't real."

"And we have told you that we don't believe that." Kylie repeated. "Come on! You barely talk about your life from before San Francisco. At least tell us where you lived, what was school like? Or something! You're our closest friend, and we don't know many things about you."

Annabeth sighed, "I guess I can't keep up this facade forever."

Kylie and Alison looked triumphant.

"The truth is, the reason I moved here is... I got kicked out of my old school because I graffitied the school." Annabeth said quickly.

Alison got very mad. "You know that is a fucking huge lie!" She yelled. "We have always been truthful to you and this is how you repay us?" Alison rarely gets mad, so Annabeth knew it was a big thing. "Why can't you just tell us the truth for once and then we can go back to being best friends, because we know that you aren't keeping anything from us!"

"FINE! It's all true! Is that what you want to hear?" Annabeth was yelling now with tears in her eyes. "Yes, I'm a daughter of Athena! Yes, I'm dating Percy Jackson! And yes I lived through all of this!" Annabeth broke down and sat on the other couch, away from her friends.

Even though Kylie and Alison had already figured out who she was, they were still surprise that Annabeth actually told them. "Look," Kylie said, "we're sorry, we didn't mean to get you mad. We just wanted to know the truth."

"Are you happy now?" Annabeth glared at them.

"No! We're not," Alison said truthfully. "But now that we know the truth we can eat our dinner, and go back to reading the book."

Annabeth suddenly started to laugh, and Alison and Kylie looked at her worriedly. "Um... What's so funny?" They asked.

"It feels so different, having the truth be out in the open. Now whenever i go to kill a monster, I don't have to lie about where I'm going." She smiled, "thank you for making me tell you, I didn't want to, but I'm glad i did."

The three girls hugged each other. It was a perfect bonding moment, until the doorbell rang.

Annabeth laughed again, "I probably look horrible, can one of you guys answer the door and give the guy money while I go clean myself up?" She went to the bathroom.

"I'll go," Kylie said. "Maybe, if it's a boy, he is really hot, and I can get a boyfriend."

Alison laughed at her, "You could get any boy in our school, you're really pretty."

"Maybe so, but all the guys are douches in our school." Kylie opened the door to see a really hot guy.

He had black hair that looked like no matter what he did with it, it would always be messy. He also had green eyes the color of the sea. Not the San Francisco Bay, but a really pretty sea, like the ones in pictures of the mediterranean. "Hi, is this the Chase residence?" He asked, "I have an order of Chinese food for you."

"Yes," Kylie said. "Here's the money," and she gave the right amount to the man.

"I can only take the money from a resident of this home, and I'm sorry, but you're a guest, I can tell." He said smiling.

"Ugh.. new rule I guess," Kylie mumbled. "Annabeth! The Chinese delivery guy says that you personally have to give him the money, it's one of those stupid rules that restaurant are coming up with nowadays."

"Fine, I'm on my way, one sec!" Annabeth walked to the front door looking much better than she had ten minutes ago. "Those new rules are really bugging.." When she realized who was actually at the door she broke into a grin and started running towards him. "Percy! How did you get here so fast? I thought you said you couldn't get here until tomorrow because of the flight schedule? Even then, it takes all day to fly across the country! I don't get it, how are you here? not that I mind of course."

"Whoa, wise girl, slow down," Percy grinned. "Finally, something a daughter of Athena doesn't know."

Annabeth hit him, "I don't know everything, seaweed brain. But seriously, how did you get here?"

"With a little help from Aphrodite, of course. She couldn't bear to keep us apart, so when I asked, she poofed me right to Lombard Street. It took me awhile to find your house, but I think she did that on purpose." Percy smiled at Annabeth. "Can I come in? I come bearing Chinese food, and we need to talk about that book you told me about."

"Yeah, let's go to the living room," Annabeth turned around to see her friends staring at the two. "Oh yeah, Alison, Kylie, this is my boyfriend, Percy Jackson. Percy, these are my friends Kylie and Alison. I think we have a lot to talk about."

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**A/N: I noticed some mistakes in previous chapters but they're small, so I don't think I'm going to fix them. Hope nobody minds.. This chapter is a lot shorter than the others, but I hope it's not too short. Please Review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I meant to update this weekend, but I got into a bad fight with one of my friends and I felt depressed. Also, I was gonna update earlier today, but I went boarding. It was fun, though, and no offense to you readers, but I like my real life better than internet me. ****Hope this chapter is okay, it's my longest one so far!** Although that's because the chapter is really long, but... Sorry if I made any mistakes..

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians**

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Kylie and Alison's heads were reeling with all of the new information about Demigods. They weren't told the full story, like about Kronos, but they learned about life as a Demigod.

"Sorry about giving you all of this new information so quickly, but if we want to finish this story, we're going to have to keep reading." Annabeth said.

They quickly took their places around Annabeth's room. Alison and Kylie were each in comfy chairs and Annabeth and Percy were cuddling on her bed.

"Percy, do you want to read? It is your life after all." Annabeth asked.

"Sure, but it's gonna hurt my dyslexic eyes.." Percy said. He gave her a quick kiss and took the book from her. "What chapter are we on?"

"We are on chapter five," Kylie said. Kylie and Alison were still in awe of the two half-bloods. They couldn't believe that everything they knew about their friend was mostly false. Percy was also like a celebrity in Kylie's eyes. He had his own book and everything!

"**I Play Pinochle With a Horse,"**

"Chiron wouldn't like you calling him a horse," Annabeth laughed.

"Hey! I was new and I didn't know any better." Percy argued.

"I think we should tell him," Annabeth teased.

It was a whole new side of Annabeth Alison and Kylie had never seen before. She would laugh and joke around with them, but she was never truly carefree.

"Ahem," Alison cleared her throat. "We should get back to the book now." She looked pointedly at Percy who was tickling Annabeth.

"Um, yeah okay."

**I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.**

"I miss those dreams," Percy sighed.

"I wish I had those dreams," Annabeth muttered. "Mine are always worse than that."

**I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding.**

"Ambrosia, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth giggled.

"Well, I know that now."

**The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.**

Kylie sighed, "Aww that's so romantic."

Alison stared at her, "Last time I checked, smirking isn't romantic; it's rude."

"You have no appreciation for romance," Kylie replied condescendingly.

**When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"**

"You should have known that I didn't know anything," Percy said.

"I was hoping you'd be smart. Plus, I was desperate." Annabeth explained.

**I managed to croak, "What?"**

**looked around, as if afraid someone would over hear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"**

**"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't..."**

"You never knew," Annabeth laughed. "You were always so clueless. Especially with girls."

**Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.**

**The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.**

"Aw, you're missing me already," Annabeth teased.

"You know I was," Percy mumbled and started kissing Annabeth.

Alison and Kylie looked uncomfortable. After a few seconds, Kylie stood up and said, "Helloo! Reading a book here."

Annabeth and Percy blushed. "It's been awhile since we've seen each other," Annabeth explained.

**A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes- at least a dozen of them- on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.**

**When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries.**

**There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. **

"How do you even know what that feels like?" Alison asked.

"Um.. I don't.. It's just a guess," Percy trailed off.

**My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.**

"Reminds me of braces," Alison shuddered. **(A/N: Totally true, btw)**

**On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.**

**My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.**

**"Careful," a familiar voice said.**  
**Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week.**

"He hadn't," Annabeth informed them.

**Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.**

"Goat boy," Annabeth snorted. "He just _loves_that nickname."

**So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And...**

**"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."**

**Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.**

**Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.**

**"The Minotaur," I said.**

"Idiot," Annabeth murmured lovingly into Percy's shoulder.

**"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"**

**"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."**

**Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"**

**"My mom. Is she really ..."**

**He looked down.**

"Just be glad she's back," Annabeth said.

Percy smiled, "I couldn't live without her."

**I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.**

"Are you calling Thalia beautiful?" Annabeth teased.

"Oh yeah.. there's something I need to tell you I'm actually going out with a huntress who's sworn off men for the rest her existence." Percy joked.

"Are we missing something?" Kylie asked.

"You'll find out in the next couple books, if the author continues making these books." Percy said.

**My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.**

**"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm- I'm the worst satyr in the world."**

"No he's not!" Annabeth and Percy exclaimed in sync.

**He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.**

**"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.**

**Thunder rolled across the clear sky.**

**As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.** **Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head.**

"You should do it," Annabeth said.

"I tried," Percy replied, "but he caught me. Let's just say even a nature-loving goat can get _pissed_."

**But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.**

**I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe?**

"Never," Annabeth stated.

**No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army.**

"You were too puny to join the army." Annabeth laughed.

**I'd do something.**

**Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid- poor goat, satyr, whatever- looked as if he expected to be hit.**

**I said, "It wasn't your fault."**

**"Yes, it was. I was supposed to **_**protect **_**you."**

**"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"**

**"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."**

**"But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.**

**"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here." He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.**

**I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies.**

"Yum," Alison licked her lips. "Do you have any cookies, Annabeth?"

"Yeah, they're in the kitchen. Get everyone some, please."

"Okay, I'll be right back." Alison left the room in search of cookies.

**And not just any cookies- my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.**

"Aww, that's so sweet!" Kylie said.

**Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.**

**"Was it good?" Grover asked.**

**I nodded.**

**"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.**

**"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."**

"Only if you want him to shrivel up and burn from the inside out," Annabeth shuddered at the thought.

**His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."**

**"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Homemade."**

**He sighed. "And how do you feel?"**

**"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."**

"I'm guessing that's good?" Kylie asked.

"Very good."

**"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you could risk drinking any more of that stuff"**

**"What do you mean?"**

**He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."**

**The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.**

**My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held onto it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go.**

"Is it still in your cabin?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah, it's hanging on my wall."

**As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.**

**We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture**

"Cause it is," Annabeth stated.

**an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. **

"Gods, I suck at archery." Percy laughed.

**Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.**

"Nope, you weren't." Annabeth said.

"I'm glad I wasn't. I miss Blackjack already." Percy said.

**Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon-fed me popcorn-flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.**

"Aww you noticed her!" Kylie squealed.

"Whoa, what's all this squealing about?" Alison appeared in the doorway holding a plate of cookies in her hand.

"Annabeth wanted to make sure Percy was okay, so she waited for him," Kylie said.

"That's not exactly how it happened," Annabeth blushed.

**The man facing me was small, but porky.**

"Mr. D is going to _love _this description," Percy chuckled.

**He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park.**

"I don't get why he wouldn't like that description," Alison joked. "It's very flattering."

**He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out-gambled even my step father.**

"He definitely could," Annabeth mumbled.

**"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to me. "He's the camp director. Be polite.**

**The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper,**

"What's that supposed to mean?" Annabeth asked outraged.

"He makes it better," Percy comforted, "Wait a second."

**but she's been here longer than just about anybody.**

"I guess that's okay," Annabeth reluctantly admitted.

**And you already know Chiron..."**

**He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.**

**First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard.**

**"Mr. Brunner!" I cried.**

"Really, Percy? Grover just called him Chiron and you say 'Mr. Brunner'?" Annabeth giggled.

"I had been a rough week," Percy replied.

**The Latin teacher turned and smiled at me. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers **_**B**_**.**

Percy, Alison, and Kylie all looked at Annabeth waiting for a reaction.

"What? That's actually a good idea." Annabeth approved.

"How?" Kylie asked. "It would the easiest quiz ever."

"When you take a test, don't you get suspicious whenever there are too many of a letter in a row?" Annabeth demanded.

"I guess that's true," Kylie conceded.

"There is something I would change though," Annabeth said. "I would have like, one D, or something. The students would figure it out, but the D would throw them off."

Percy said, "That would be a confusing quiz."

"Exactly." **(A/N: One of my teachers did that one time, the one different letter confused me a lot)**

**"Ah, good, Percy," he said. "Now we have four for pinochle."**

**He offered me a chair to the right of Mr. D, who looked at me with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you."**

"Is he ever glad to see anyone?" Percy asked rhetorically.

**"Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, **_**if **_**there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.**

"Zeus is gonna get mad when he finds out," Annabeth laughed.

**"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.**

**She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's bunk? We'll be putting him in cabin eleven for now."**

**Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."**

**She was probably my age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking.**

"Well, of course. I had been at camp most of my life."

**With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image.**

"Ruined?" Annabeth demanded.

"Keep listening," Percy responded weakly.

**They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty,**

"Thanks," Annabeth blushed.

"Aww, you guys are so cute together!" Kylie beamed.

**but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.**

"Of course I was, seaweed brain."

**She glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, **_**You killed a minotaur! **_**or **_**Wow, you're so awesome! **_**or something like that.**

Annabeth snorted, "Yeah, right."

**Instead she said, "You drool when you sleep."**

Alison and Kylie burst out laughing. "You just got rejected." Alison said in between breaths.

**Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.**

**"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"**

"Still?"

**"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex-Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."**

**"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"**

"How are you not vaporized?" Annabeth wondered. "Especially with all the gods you pissed off."

"I have no idea."

**Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."**

**"Oh. Right. Sorry."**

**"I must say, Percy," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."**

**"House call?"**

**"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you. He sensed you were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."**

**I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.**

**"You came to Yancy just to teach me?" I asked.**

"Ego alert," Annabeth coughed.

**Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you at first.**

Alison laughed, "you just got put down by your teacher."

**We contacted your mother, let her know we were keeping an eye on you in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."**

**"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"**

**"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.**

"Well when you say it that way," Annabeth trailed off.

**"You **_**do **_**know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed me suspiciously.**

**"I'm afraid not," I said.**

**"I'm afraid not, **_**sir**_**," he said.**

**"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.**

"You're not alone there," Annabeth muttered.

**"Well," he told me, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all **_**civilized **_**young men to know the rules."**

**"I'm sure the boy can learn," Chiron said.**

**"Please," I said, "what is this place? What am I doing here? Mr. Brun-Chiron-why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach me?"**

**Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."**

**The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.**

**Chiron smiled at me sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let me know that no matter what my average was, **_**I **_**was his star student. He expected **_**me **_**to have the right answer.**

"That's a lot of pressure," Kylie said sympathetically.

**"Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'**

**"She said ..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."**

**"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"**

**"What?" I asked.**

**He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.**

**"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."**

"You never saw the orientation film? No wonder you were clueless," Annabeth commented.

**"Orientation film?" I asked.**

**"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy. You know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know-" he pointed to the horn in the shoe box- "that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either, lad. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods- the forces you call the Greek gods- are very much alive."**

"So weird thinking about how earlier today we were clueless," Alison said.

"Well, you were clueless." Kylie boasted, "I had guessed all along."

**I stared at the others around the table.**

**I waited for somebody to yell, **_**Not! **_**But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.**

**"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"**

"Well, that's weird," Alison stated.

**"Eh? Oh, all right."**

**Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.**

**"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as god."**

"Nope," Annabeth popped the 'p'.

**"Well, now," Chiron said. "God- capital **_**G**_**, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."**

**"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-"**

**"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."**

"I'm not sure the gods would like being called a smaller matter," Percy said. Thunder rolled across the clear sky, "Looks like I was right."

**"Smaller?"**

**"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."**

**"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."**

"I like how you don't mention your dad." Annabeth declared.

**And there it was again-distant thunder on a cloudless day.**

**"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."**

"Pshht, I never throw around names," Percy jokingly lied.

**"But they're stories," I said. "They're- myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."**

**"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson"**

"Perseus," Alison snorted.

**-I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody- "what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals- they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come **_**so-o-o **_**far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."**

**I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he wasn't.**

"Nope, he isn't," Annabeth said.

**It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.**

**"Percy," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that **_**immortal **_**means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"**

**I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, **

"Then why'd you turn it down?" Annabeth whispered.

"For you," Percy smiled at Annabeth lovingly.

"Aww," Kylie cooed.

**but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate.**

**"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," I said.**

"That too," Percy considered.

**"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that some day people would call **_**you **_**a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"**

"That was unnecessarily harsh," Annabeth declared.

**My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."**

**"Oh, you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you."**

**Grover said, "P-please, sir. He's just lost his mother. He's in shock."**

"Yeah, I was."

**"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with boys who don't even believe.'"**

"It's his fault," Annabeth muttered.

**He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.**

"Zeus is gonna hear about this," said Annabeth.

**My jaw dropped, but Chiron hardly looked up.**

**"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."**

**Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.**

**"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"**

**More thunder.**

"Spooky," Alison joked.

**Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. **

**He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.**

**Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."**

"Boys," Annabeth snorted.

**"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.**

**"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time- well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away- the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tearing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."**

"He sounds like a little kid." Kylie said.

**Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid.**

"You think like my boyfriend," Annabeth laughed. "You should probably go to the hospital."

"Hey!" Percy looked offended.

"Only joking, of course."

**"And ..." I stammered, "your father is ..."**

_**"Di immortales, **_**Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My **  
**father is Zeus, of course."**

**I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.**

**"You're Dionysus," I said. "The god of wine."**

"No shit, Sherlock," Alison said.

**Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"**

**"Y-yes, Mr. D."**

**"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"**

"He wishes he was as pretty as her," Percy said. Annabeth glared at Percy. "Of course, no one is as beautiful as my lovely girlfriend." Annabeth smirked; she had Percy under complete control.

**"You're a god."**

**"Yes, child."**

**"A god. You."**

Annabeth, Alison, and Kylie all started laughing. "How.. Are.. You.. Alive?" Alison asked gasping for air.

**He turned to look at me straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elongating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if I pushed him, Mr. D would show me worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.**

"Oohh, not gonna get Mr. D mad again," Annabeth said.

**"Would you like to test me, child?" he said quietly.**

**"No. No, sir."**

**The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."**

"Was the streak broken?" Annabeth asked.

**"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. **

"I should have known," Annabeth said, "Mr. D never beats Chiron."

**He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."**

**I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.**

**"I'm tired," Mr. D said.**

"Like always."

**"I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, **_**again, **_**about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."**

**Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."**

**Mr. D turned to me. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson. And mind your manners."**

"Yes, Percy, you should," Annabeth said pointedly.

**He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.**

**"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.**

**Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."**

**"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling me there really is a palace there?"**

"Yep."

**"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."**

**"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in **_**America**_**?"**

"It's certainly hard to believe," Alison said.

**"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."**

**"The what?"**

**"Come now, Percy. What you call 'Western civilization.' Do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know- or as I hope you know, since you passed my course- the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps- Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on- but the same forces, the same gods."**

**"And then they died."**

"They're immortal, seaweed brain."

**"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the architecture.**  
**People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not prominently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not- and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either- America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."**

"That's actually really cool," Kylie said.

**It was all too much, especially the fact that **_**I **_**seemed to be included in Chiron's **_**we, **_**as if I were part of some club.**

**"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"**

"You, Perseus Jackson, are mighty slayer of the fruit-of-the-looms-wearing minotaur." Alison said spookily.

"Thank you, I accept my destiny," Percy joked.

**Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.**

"Nope, he's just a horse," Percy said.

**"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you a bunk in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to 'meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be smores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."**

"That's an understatement," Annabeth snickered.

**And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.**

"That's pretty disgusting, actually," Percy informed them.

**I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of my Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.**

"Because he's a centaur," Annabeth said.

"No shit," Percy mumbled.

**"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson. Let's meet the other campers."**

"That sounds like fun," Alison said. "I'll read next." Percy tossed her the book. She caught and read, "**I Become the Supreme Lord of the Bathroom**."

"That was funny," Kylie said.

"It was," Annabeth and Percy laughed remembering the day.

Before they could start reading they heard a noise from downstairs, "Annabeth! Come down here right now!

"Shit!" Annabeth whisper-yelled. "Percy, quick, hide in my closet. Coming, mother!" The three girls went downstairs pretending nothing was wrong. The saw the mad face of Mrs. Chase and gulped...

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**A/N: Hope you liked it! Please review all of you opinions, good or bad. Hopefully I'll update soon..**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Sorry for the really long wait! I didn't really feel like writing anything for a while, so I didn't. Then I got the flu and was out for a couple days. Then I had so much make-up work I didn't have any time. Now its February break and I have time, except I'm in Hawaii so I've been distracted for a couple days tanning and stuff. Sorry again, I'll try to be better about it.**

**Rick Riordan never gives Annabeth's step-mom a name, so I made one up. I don't think Annabeth's the type to call her step-mom 'mom'.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians**

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Annabeth, Kylie, and Alison rushed down the stairs. "Hi, Helen," Annabeth said sweetly.

Her mom glared at her from the kitchen door. "How many times have I told you to not leave dishes out? And you didn't even put away the rest of the food that you didn't eat."

The three girls sighed in relief when Mrs. Chase said that. They thought that they were gonna be in big trouble. Suddenly Annabeth realized something really bad. There would be four plates when there were only supposed to be three.

"You know what? You're right. We'll go put away everything now." Annabeth ushered her friends into the kitchen. Her mom looked at them suspiciously, but left to go to the living room.

"Oh thank the gods, I thought we were gonna be caught for sure." Annabeth said to Alison and Kylie.

"What happened in there?" Kylie asked. "You got a really panicked look on your face for a second."

"I realized that Percy's plate would be with ours. She would wonder why there is an extra plate, so I offered to clean everything up." Annabeth explained.

"That was really smart of you," Alison said. "But speaking of Percy, what are we gonna do with him? It's not like we can just tell your parents that you have your boyfriend in your room and he's gonna spend the next couple nights with you."

Annabeth finished putting the dishes and food away and thought about the predicament. "You're right, my parents are lenient because of the whole half-blood situation, but I think they'll draw the line at my boyfriend sleeping in my house."

Kylie thought of an idea, "How 'bout we just don't tell your parents and he can live in your closet for the next few days. Your closet's pretty big and we can bring him food. It wouldn't be hard."

"That's a good idea. We have to be careful of Matthew and Bobby, though. They snoop through my stuff more than I would like." Annabeth walked out of the kitchen with her friends. "Helen! Make sure Matthew and Bobby stay out of my room, please. I don't want them to annoy my friends and me the rest of the night."

"I'll try, but I can't make any promises," was heard from the living room.

"Come on," Annabeth muttered to her friends, "let's go see if they've invaded my room yet."

The trio walked up the stairs and into Annabeth's room. "Before we say anything, let's look in all the hiding places of my room for my brothers." Annabeth wanted to be careful.

"I don't think they're in here," Percy said from inside the closet. "I didn't hear the door open, and the closet's the easiest place to hide, and obviously there not in here."

Annabeth laughed, "Okay, sorry about you having to be in there, but I'll lock my door so no one can get in and you can come out."

Kylie locked the door and they sat in the same places as before. "Percy, you can come out now," Annabeth told him.

"Thank the gods; it was getting hot in there. You're lucky I'm not claustrophobic." Percy said.

"Yeah, yeah, you have a horrible life hiding in your girlfriend's closet. I'm sure life is tough. Can I have the book? I want to get at least halfway done tonight," Alison grumbled.

Annabeth laughed and tossed the book towards her. "Okay, grumpy."

Alison grabbed the book and read, "**I Become the Supreme Lord of the Bathroom**."

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**A/N: Sorry that it's so short, but I wanted to post something. Please review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.**

**"I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom,"**Alison read.

"Remember Clarisse's face?" Annabeth asked Percy.

"I don't think I'll ever forget it." Percy laughed.

Alison and Kylie shared a look that said they were really glad Percy was here to make Annabeth whole.

**Once I got over the fact that my Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour, though I was careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.**

By the end of this paragraph Percy's face was red. "Aww," Annabeth said. "I find it cute you had to do that. But how did the horses not talk to you then?"

"Now that I think about it, I don't know. Usually horses shower me with praise, but I didn't hear them back then I guess." Percy said.

"All horses except for the fire-breathing ones at Geryon's ranch, remember? I thought I was gonna die." Annabeth laughed.

"Of course I remember, I couldn't get the smell off for days." Percy complained. "Well, I wouldn't have if I hadn't gone… missing for a few weeks."

"Please, I know you were on Ogygia. I might look like a dumb blond, but I'm not." Annabeth flipped her hair. "And I'm over it; she's not a threat when she's stuck on her island."

"No one's a threat, Annabeth, I'll never leave you." Percy said seriously. They promptly started to make out.

"Ahem," Alison cleared her throat. "I know it's been a while since you've seen each other, and you guys are perfect for each other and stuff but we need to finish this book."

"But they're so cute together!" Kylie squealed. "Oh, and I want to know what the hell you are talking about because they haven't written those books yet."

"Do you wanna know about Geryon's ranch and Calypso?" Annabeth wondered. "We'll tell you after we finish this book. You can start again Alison."

**We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "That's**_**him**_**."**

"And that's creepy," Kylie muttered.

**Most of the campers were older than me. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at me made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting me to do a flip or something.**

"They would have thought that you're awesome if you did that," Annabeth stated.

"I don't need them to like me more than they already do," Percy said uncomfortably.

**I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized—four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.**

**"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.**

**He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."**

**"Somebody lives there?"**

**"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."**

"That was a clever way to hide the truth." Annabeth nodded her head approvingly.

**I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.**

**"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced. "Lots to see."**

"God, is he always this bad at changing the subject?" Alison asked.

Percy and Annabeth glanced at each other and said in sync, "Always."

**We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.**

**Chiron told me the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."**

**He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.**

"Why didn't he just grow normal grapes?" Kylie asked.

"He claims it's too tempting or something," Annabeth explained.

**I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music.**

Percy laughed, "Maybe now, but certainly not then."

Annabeth elbowed him in the stomach, "Be nice, he's your best friend."

"Ha!" Percy said, "That didn't hurt, Achilles curse, remember?"

"Of course I do," Annabeth said rubbing her elbow.

"You're gonna have to tell us that story too," Alison said.

**I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.**

**"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... he was a good protector. Really."**

**Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Grover has big dreams, Percy. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable.**

"I bet he would take that back now," Percy whispered to Annabeth.

**To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."**

**"But he did that!"**

**"I might agree with you," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge.**

"It should be," Annabeth muttered.

**Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part."**

"Grover is the only reason I came to camp half-blood!" Percy shouted enraged.

"Percy, calm down. This happened more than five years ago." Annabeth tried to comfort.

**I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If I hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.**

**"He'll get a second chance, won't he?"**

"That was his second chance," Annabeth sighed.

**Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that**_**was**___**Grover's second chance, Percy. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age..."**

**"How old is he?"**

**"Oh, twenty-eight."**

"I still find that crazy," Alison stated.

"Good," Annabeth laughed. "It means you're not insane. You found out about this what, and hour ago?"

"That's true…" Alison said. "It feels like so much longer though."

**"What! And he's in sixth grade?"**

**"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, Percy. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."**

Kylie shuddered, "That literally sucks. I hated middle school."

**"That's horrible."**

**"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career..."**

**"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"**

**Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"**

"Wow, even worse than before," Alison giggled.

**But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word **_**death.**___**The beginnings of an idea—a tiny, hopeful fire—started forming in my mind.**

"Gods, you're such a seaweed brain," Annabeth whispered into Percy's ear.

**"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ..."**

**"Yes, child?"**

**"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"**

"You're insane, and not in a good way." Kylie said.

"Ain't that the truth." Annabeth joked.

**Chiron's expression darkened.**

**"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words care fully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now ... until we know more ... I would urge you to put that out of your mind."**

"I'm glad someone was thinking clearly." Annabeth said pointedly.

**"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"**

**"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."**

**As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.**

**Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."**

**"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"**

"Were you seriously that stupid?" Annabeth asked.

"Um… yeah," Percy said sheepishly.

**"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own sword and shield?"**

"Why would you?" Alison wondered.

"Sometimes a person comes knowing everything and having weapons, like me." Annabeth explained, "Though since Percy doesn't know anything, I wonder why Chiron thought he would have a weapon."

**"My own—?"**

**"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do. I'll visit the armory later."**

"That size five didn't really fit well." Annabeth informed Percy.

"Don't tell me I looked like Nico did," Percy sighed.

"I wouldn't know, I wasn't there seaweed brain. I was holding the weight of the sky on my shoulders." Annabeth teased him.

"Not a memory I want to remember," Percy frowned. "It wasn't a good week for me."

"I'm adding that to the list of stories you are going to tell us," Alison told them.

**I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much),** **the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.**

**"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.**

**"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually. **

"That's reassuring," Kylie laughed.

**Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."**

**Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.**

**"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.**

**Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird.**

"Of course you didn't know," Annabeth sighed. "I don't get why Chiron doesn't understand that you are new and you don't know all of this."

**"We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject.**

**Finally, he showed me the cabins. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.**

"I take offense to that!" Annabeth pushed Percy away from her for a second, but then she decided she still wanted to cuddle with him so she pulled him back. This somehow made him fall onto the ground, not hurt, but in a weird position. There was a loud crash, because the books on her bedside table had also come down with him and landed on his head.

"Ow," Percy said.

"Shut up, it didn't hurt," Annabeth chastised. "I'm sorry though."

Kylie and Alison didn't know what to think of this. "Does this happen a lot?" Kylie wondered.

Annabeth said "Never," the same time Percy said "Always."

"Annabeth!" Helen called from downstairs. "What was that loud noise?"

"Nothing! I just dropped some books; nothing broke though, so it's okay!" Annabeth screamed back at her.

"Okay, just making sure!" Then a crash came from downstairs, "Matthew, Bobby! Didn't I tell you boys to go to bed!? No! Don't bother your sister! Come back down here right now! Arghh!"

"Quick, Percy, in the closet." Annabeth pushed him towards the closet just as the door opened and her twin brothers appeared in the doorway.

"Matthew, Bobby, as always, what are you doing in here?" Annabeth asked annoyed.

"Just making sure our big sis isn't up to trouble," Bobby said.

"We don't want her to get grounded or anything," Matthew said evilly.

"Leave us alone," Kylie glared at them.

"Why should we?" They asked innocently.

"Because you love me?" Annabeth hoped.

They laughed. "Of course we do, that's why we are checking up on you. We care about your well-being and stuff."

"Yeah, that's convincing," Alison snorted.

"Just leave us alone." Annabeth grabbed Matthew and Bobby by their ears and dragged them downstairs and to their room.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. Mom! Why aren't you doing anything?" They complained.

"I told you not to go up there." She did nothing but sit on the couch and watch.

"But she has demigod strength and stuff," They whined.

"You should've thought of that before," Helen said.

After Annabeth finished dragging the two troublemakers to their room she glared at them and walked back upstairs.

"Finally, Percy you can come out now." Annabeth sat back down on the bed with relief.

"Cool, let's keep reading, Alison?"

**Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory.**

**Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass.**

**Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at.**

**They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).**

**In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.**

"Ahh Hestia," Percy said. "I wish I had said hi to her."

"I never saw her,' Annabeth said disappointedly.

**The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them.**

**Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.**

"Ugh…" Annabeth grumbled. "Hera. I hate her."

"You can tell us why later," Kylie said, not wanting to bother Annabeth when she was in a bad mood.

**"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.**

**"Correct," Chiron said.**

**"Their cabins look empty."**

**"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."**

**Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot.**

"I bet they'd find offense to that." Annabeth warned Percy, "Don't call them mascots to their face, okay?"

"How come everything I do offends the gods?" Percy complained.

"Because you're the son of Poseidon," Annabeth said that like it explained the meaning of life.

**Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians. But why would some be empty?**

**I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.**

**It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"**

"Nahh, Dad would never hurt his me," Percy smiled.

**Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone.**

"It's so pretty in there," Annabeth gushed. "I especially love the walls."

"Yeah, yeah. You love architecture. Keep reading please," Percy covered Annabeth's mouth with his hand to keep her from talking.

**There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."**

"It's not sad and lonely anymore, not with Tyson." Percy said brightly.

"Who's Tyson?" Alison asked.

"My half-brother," Percy informed them.

"Poseidon broke the oath twice?" Kylie asked incredulously.

"No," Annabeth laughed. "Tyson is a Cyclops."

"Ohh, okay." Kylie said.

**Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.**

**Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists.**

Annabeth giggled, "I remember that day. I was nine and the Hermes cabin decided to paint the Ares cabin pink. The Ares cabin didn't like that, so they repainted the cabin exactly how you thought. The Hermes cabin got in so much trouble, especially Luke; it was his idea." Annabeth's eyes water a she reminisced about the good days with Luke.

"It's okay," Percy comforted.

Alison and Kylie shared a glance. Wasn't Luke evil? Why would Annabeth still care about him?

**The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on me and gave me an evil sneer.**

"Ahh Clarisse. I remember that day like it was yesterday. She secretly likes me." Percy said.

"Keep thinking that," Annabeth teased.

"I'll have you know I helped her many times." Percy said indignantly.

"Like when? Besides the Sea of Monsters," Annabeth challenged.

"Err, I'm actually not supposed to tell you. But it has to do with her immortal family and a chariot." Percy knew Annabeth was going to figure it out; she always did.

Annabeth glared playfully at Percy. "I will figure this out."

"I never doubted you," Percy replied.

**She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.**

**I kept walking, trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.**

**"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you won't see any here."**

"The Party Ponies are the best," Percy smiled.

"That they are," Annabeth agreed.

"Um… You're gonna have to tell us that story," Alison said.

"Hm… The list is getting pretty long, I'm gonna write all of them down so we don't forget which stories we want to hear." Kylie grabbed paper and a pencil from Annabeth's desk and wrote down everything they wanted to know. "Okay, I'm ready."

**"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ..."**

**He smiled down at me.**_**"The**___**Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."**

**"But, shouldn't you be dead?"**

**Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about**_**should**___**be. The truth is, I**_**can't**___**be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."**

"He always will be," Annabeth smiled.

**I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.**

"Same with me," Kylie agreed.

**"Doesn't it ever get boring?"**

**"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."**

**"Why depressing?"**

"I understand now," Percy's face turned dark.

"Wh-" Kylie elbowed Alison in the stomach before she could ask why. Percy and Annabeth's faces grew somber as they thought about all they had been through.

**Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again.**

**"Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."**

**The blond girl I'd met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.**

"Nerd," Percy coughed and Annabeth hit him only to hurt her own hand.

"Gods, I hate that curse." Annabeth grumbled.

**When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled.**

"No I wasn't," Annabeth said indignantly.

**I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek.**

"Haha, you're so punny," Annabeth said sarcastically.

"You're just jealous," Percy quipped.

"Of you? Hardly," Annabeth retorted.

Kylie cleared her throat, "Let's get back to the book, shall we?"

**There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.**

**"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy from here?"**

**"Yes, sir."**

**"Cabin eleven," Chiron told me, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourself at home."**

**Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on**_**old.**_

**The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it... ?**

"A caduceus," Annabeth announced.

"Hold on, I knew that," Percy objected.

**A caduceus.**

"Oh," she blushed.

**Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.**

**Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.**

**"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy. I'll see you at dinner."**

**He galloped away toward the archery range.**

**I stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at me, sizing me up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.**

**"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."**

**So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself.**

They all burst out laughing. "Such a seaweed brain," Annabeth gasped while holding her stomach. They all thought you were a total loser."

Yeah, well I proved them wrong," Percy grinned.

**There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything.**

**Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, meet cabin eleven."**

**"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked.**

**I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."**

**Everybody groaned.**

**A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward.**

**"Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy. You can have that spot on the floor, right over there."**

"How nice of him," Kylie jeered.

Annabeth looked like she wanted to say something, but held back. They didn't know the full story yet.

**The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.**

**"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing.**

Annabeth rolled her eyes as Percy pretended to still be jealous.

"How did you like him?" Alison asked incredulously.

"He was different before his quest." Annabeth explained. "Afterwards, I thought I was in love with him so I never noticed the change. I could only see the good in him."

**She saw me looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now."**

**"For now?" I asked.**

**"You're undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."**

**I looked at the tiny section of floor they'd given me. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.**

"I'll bet they were disappointed," Annabeth laughed.

**I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.**

**"How long will I be here?" I asked.**

**"Good question," Luke said. "Until you're determined."**

**"How long will that take?"**

"You were lucky, most campers didn't get determined that quickly." Annabeth sighed.

"Not anymore," Percy assured.

Alison took the paper from Kylie and wrote something down.

**The campers all laughed.**

**"Come on," Annabeth told me. "I'll show you the volleyball court."**

**"I've already seen it."**

"Gods, I forgot how stupid you were." Annabeth ruffled Percy's hair before pecking him on the lips.

**"Come on." She grabbed my wrist and dragged me outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me.**

**When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, you have to do better than that."**

"Ooh… last name, Percy you're in trouble." Alison mocked.

**"What?"**

**She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."**

"I was wrong, you are the one," Annabeth and Percy started kissing again.

Instead of stopping them, Alison and Kylie used the extra time to make sure their list of stories was complete so far. Finally, after five minutes, kylie threw a pillow at their heads to get their attention.

"Can we finish the story?" She asked.

"Um… yes." Annabeth responded awkwardly as she fixed her now messed up hair.

**"What's your problem?" I was getting angry now. "All I know is, I kill some bull guy—"**

**"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"**

"I would rather not have that chance now," Annabeth decided.

**"To get killed?"**

**"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"**

"Not for that," Annabeth sighed.

**I shook my head. "Look, if the thing I fought really was**_**the**___**Minotaur, the same one in the stories ..."**

**"Yes."**

**"Then there's only one."**

**"Yes."**

**"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So ..."**

**"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."**

"That's so confusing," Alison remarked.

"Actually not really," surprisingly Percy said. "When you kill a monster, they go to Tartarus for a while. But then they come back to life and you can kill them again."

"Ohh that makes more sense."

**"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."**

**"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them arche types. Eventually, they re-form."**

"I like Percy's definition better," Kylie announced.

**I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"**

**"The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."**

**"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"**

**"You talk in your sleep." **

"Do I still?" Percy whined.

"As far as I know, yes," Annabeth laughed.

**"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"**

**Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her.**

"Has that happened before?" Kylie asked timidly.

"Once," Annabeth said darkly. "Let's just say we are a lot more careful now about what we say."

**"You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."**

**"Look, is there anything we**_**can**___**say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care.**

"Gods, you were annoying that first day," Annabeth complained.

**"Why do I have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."**

"Only if you want to die," Annabeth suggested.

**I pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or ... your parent."**

**She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.**

"I should have just told you. I would have saved me a lot of time and explaining." Annabeth told Percy.

"I got it eventually," Percy responded.

"Key word eventually," Kylie murmured to Alison.

**"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said.**

**"She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."**

**"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."**

**"He's dead. I never knew him."**

**Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids.**

"I hate those conversations," She sighed.

**"Your father's not dead, Percy."**

**"How can you say that? You know him?"**

"Now I do," She grinned.

**"No, of course not."**

**"Then how can you say—"**

**"Because I know**_**you.**_ **You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."**

**"You don't know anything about me."**

**"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."**

**"How—"**

**"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."**

"Way to embarrass me," Percy whined.

"You deserved it, you didn't understand anything I was trying to tell you." Annabeth stuck her tongue out at Percy.

**I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"**

**"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. **

"Really?" Kylie asked. "I didn't notice that last time I read this book. I have ADHD and dyslexia. That's weird."

"Yeah, it is…" Annabeth stared off in thought. She shook it off quickly, though. "It probably doesn't mean anything, let's keep reading."

**The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek.** **And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battle field reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."**

**"You sound like ... you went through the same thing?"**

**"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."**

**"Ambrosia and nectar."**

**"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're a half-blood."**

**A half-blood.**

**I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.**

**Then a husky voice yelled, "Well! A newbie!"**

**I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.**

**"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"**

**"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."**

"She wishes she could," Annabeth flipped her hair.

_**''Erre es korakas!"**_ **Annabeth said, which I somehow under stood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. **

"Yes, it's a lot worse," Annabeth told them.

**"You don't stand a chance."**

**"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward me. "Who's this little runt?"**

"I wasn't that short," Percy complained.

"Yes, you were," Annabeth said. "Luckily, you did grow."

**"Percy Jackson," Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."**

**I blinked. "Like ... the war god?"**

**Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"**

**"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."**

"Horrible insult," Alison winced.

**Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy."**

**"Percy."**

**"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."**

**"Clarisse—" Annabeth tried to say.**

**"Stay out of it, wise girl."**

"Did you really get my nickname from Clarisse?" Annabeth asked.

"Maybe," Percy responded sheepishly.

**Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it,** **and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.**

**I handed Annabeth my Minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.**

"That's disgusting," Kylie wrinkled her nose.

**I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron.**

**She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking—as much as I**_**could**___**think with Clarisse ripping my hair out—that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.**

Annabeth snorted, "Seriously, Percy? Classier johns?"

**Clarisse's friends were all laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.**

**"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets.**

"You bet I am," Percy grinned.

**"Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he was so stupid looking."**

**Her friends snickered.**

**Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.**

"That's not true," Annabeth said angrily.

"Yes it is," Percy laughed.

**Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.**

**Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach.**

**I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.**

"That would be so awesome." Alison said.

"It is pretty cool," Percy agreed.

**I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt.**

**The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.**

**She struggled, gasping, and her friends started coming toward her.**

**But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.**

**As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.**

**The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared.**

"I still hate you for that, by the way." Annabeth informed Percy.

"No you don't. You just think you do," Percy said absentmindedly.

**She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.**

**I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.**

"One of the many perks to being a son of Poseidon," Percy smiled.

**I stood up, my legs shaky.**

**Annabeth said, "How did you ..."**

**"I don't know."**

"That should be your catch phrase." Annabeth stated.

**We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friends were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."**

"I hope not anytime soon," Annabeth hugged her boyfriend.

**I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."**

"That was better," Alison approved.

**Her friends had to hold her back. They dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.**

**Annabeth stared at me. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her.**

"Both," Annabeth decided.

**"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"**

**"I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you on my team for capture the flag."**

"Thanks for that, by the way," Percy said. "I just love being bait."

"I know you do," Annabeth teased.

"Blah blah blah, be quiet, lovebirds." Alison asked, "Who wants to read next?"

"I will," Annabeth said. "**My Dinner Goes up in Smoke**."

**A/N: Sorry again for the waits. I have been really busy with school and softball. As much as I love fanfiction, school is my priority. I might have some mistakes because I didn't really proofread it, but sucks to suck. I'm not sure when the next chapter will be done. Please review and let me know how I'm doing!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: SO SORRY. So I decided to continue the story because I got so many reviews but I haven't had any time to do it. First, I have had softball every day and tournaments and stuff. Like, I have no idea where the past three weeks have gone. Second, the guy I have liked for two years asked out my sister, and I became sad and stuff blah, blah, blah. I've tried to get over it. Anyways, on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO.**

* * *

"**My Dinner Goes up in Smoke,"**Annabeth read.

**Word of the bathroom incident spread immediately. Wherever I went, campers pointed at me and murmured something about toilet water. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.**

"Gods I hate that feeling," Annabeth muttered.

**She showed me a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts-and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man),** **and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.**

"I hate that wall," Percy grumbled. "Only Grover likes it."

"Yeah, cause he's half goat," Annabeth snorted. "Plus, I'm amazing at that wall. I don't see why people have a hard time climbing it."

"Not all of us are amazingly smart," Percy reminded her.

**Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.**

**"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."**

"Someone's pissed," Kylie laughed.

**"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."**

**"Whatever."**

**"It wasn't my fault."**

"Actually it was," Alison pointed out.

**She looked at me skeptically, and I realized it**_**was**_**my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.**

"One with the plumbing," Alison repeated. "Ew, that's gross."

**"You need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.**

**"Who?"**

**"Not who. What.** **The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."**

**I stared into the lake, wishing somebody would give me a straight answer for once.**

"We tried," Annabeth teased Percy, "you're just too much of a seaweed brain to understand."

**I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below.**

**They wore blue jeans and shimmering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.**

**I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.**

Annabeth sniffed angrily.

"Jealous are we?" Kylie asked with a grin.

"Pshht no," Annabeth denied, "I just don't understand why the Naiads have to flirt."

"Yeah she's jealous," Percy said pulling Annabeth in for a hug.

**"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."**

**"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."**

"Right, a fury, the Minotaur, God of Wine, and a centaur, and he freaks out over a naiad, that shows a lot about his character," Alison said.

**Annabeth frowned. "Don't you get it, Percy? You**_**are**_**home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."**

**"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"**

"So now we're disturbed?" Annabeth asked. She looked at Percy, "Maybe you, but me?"

"Hey!" Percy shouted indignantly. "I'm not disturbed."

"You talk to fish and can breathe underwater," Kylie stated.

"Well, when you say it like that…"

**"I mean**_**not human.**_**Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."**

**"Half-human and half-what?"**

"You're such a seaweed brain sometimes," Annabeth groaned.

**"I think you know."**

**I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.**

**"God," I said. "Half-god."**

"Ding, ding, ding, you got it right." Alison joked, "someone give this boy a prize."

**Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."**

**"That's ... crazy."**

**"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"**

**"But those are just—" I almost said**_**myths**_**again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years,**_**I**_**might be considered a myth.**

"You are, to some people," Annabeth told Percy.

**"But if all the kids here are half-gods—"**

**"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."**

"Demigod seems much more official," Kylie said. "Plus half-bloods make you sound like mutts."

**"Then who's your dad?"**

"Always an idiot," Annabeth sighed.

**Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.**

"Very," Annabeth whispered.

**"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. **

"Not anymore," Percy said proudly, "I convinced you to move back with them."

"And see how well that turned out?" Annabeth said. "I ran away again."

**He teaches American history."**

**"He's human."**

**"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"**

"Very," Alison agreed.

"Woah, don't turn all feminist on me," Kylie joked.

**"Who's your mom, then?"**

**"Cabin six."**

"How's he supposed to know that?" Kylie looked at her friend in wonder. "Not everyone's as smart as you Annabeth."

**"Meaning?"**

**Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."**

**Okay, I thought. Why not?**

"What's that supposed to mean?" Annabeth shouted.

"I don't know?" Percy shrugged. "It was a lot to take in at the time, and I wasn't 100% sure that I believed you yet."

**"And my dad?"**

**"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."**

**"Except my mother. She knew."**

**"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."**

"My dad did," Percy said proudly.

**"My dad would have. He loved her."**

**Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble.**

"He was right, and thankfully I didn't open my mouth," Annabeth said.

**"Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son. Sometimes it happens."**

**"You mean sometimes it doesn't?"**

Percy and Annabeth sighed at the ground as they remembered the catalyst for the titan war.

**Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always ... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."**

**I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. But gods should behave better.**

"And they do now," Percy smiled, "All thanks to me."

Annabeth elbowed him in the stomach, "Don't give away the ending."

**"So I'm stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of my life?"**

**"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter,** **you're probably not a real powerful force.**

**The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble—about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off.**

Everyone looked down sadly.

**A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."**

**"So monsters can't get in here?"**

**Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."**

**"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"**

_Luke._Annabeth thought. _Nearly cost me my boyfriend's life_.

**"Practice fights. Practical jokes."**

**"Practical jokes?"**

"At least the Stolls stopped," Annabeth pointed out.

**"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."**

**"So ... you're a year-rounder?"**

**Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.**

**"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."**

**"Why did you come so young?"**

"And you wonder why I didn't like you," Annabeth said.

**She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business."**

**"Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So ... I could just walk out of here right now if I wanted to?"**

"Sometimes I think you're literally retarded," Annabeth said.

"Only sometimes?" Percy asked. "Yes!"

"I take that back," said Annabeth staring at Percy. "Always."

"Aww."

**"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless ..."**

**"Unless?"**

**"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time …"**

**Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well.**

"Not at all," Annabeth said.

**"Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff—"**

**"Ambrosia."**

**"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."**

**Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you**_**do**_**know something?"**

"It would be surprising if he did." Alison laughed.

**"Well... no. Back at my old school, I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"**

**She clenched her fists.**

**"I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so**_**normal**_**."**

That's awesome that you guys have been to Olympus," Kylie gushed.

"I don't know," Percy sighed. "Now, the memories aren't so great."

"You can tell us about it later," Kylie said guiltily. She didn't want to bring up bad memories.

**"You've been to Olympus?"**

**"Some of us year-rounders—Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others—we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."**

**"But... how did you get there?"**

**"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already.**

"Really Annabeth?" Alison looked at her. Annabeth blushed.

**"You**_**are**_**a New Yorker, right?"**

"There are millions of people in New York, I bet they don't know where it is," Kylie pointed out.

"I wasn't thinking clearly at the time," Annabeth said with a red face.

**"Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out.**

**"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen.**

"That was smart of you," Percy praised.

Annabeth laughed. "Anything compared to you is smart," she teased.

**And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping ... I mean— Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon.**

"It's like a forbidden love!" Kylie gushed.

"It used to be," Annabeth informed her. "Now our parent are more okay with it."

**But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you might know something."**

"He knows nothing," Annabeth laughed. "Except everything about the ocean and fighting."

**I shook my head. I wished I could help her,** **but I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.**

**"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to her self. "I'm**_**not**_**too young. If they would just tell me the problem …"**

"I wasn't too young," Annabeth muttured.

**I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan.**

Annabeth blushed while everyone laughed.

**Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me as I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn.**

**The counselor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.**

**"Found you a sleeping bag," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store."**

Percy glared, but Annabeth elbowed him in the stomach to make him stop. "He became good in the end," she whispered.

"Luke still caused the titan war, though." Percy whined.

"Which we forgave him for," Annabeth reminded him.

**I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.**

**I said, "Thanks."**

**"No prob." Luke sat next to me, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"**

**"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods."**

"Most of us don't at first," Annabeth said.

**"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."**

"Bitter much?" Alison mumbled.

**The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.**

**"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.**

**He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me,**

"He would," Kylie glared.

**but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."**

**"The wing-footed messenger guy."**

"What am I going to do with you?" Annabeth wondered.

**"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you're here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."**

**I figured Luke didn't mean to call me a nobody. He just had a lot on his mind.**

_Probably did._ Alison thought._Anything to bring down Percy._

**"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.**

**"Once."**

Annabeth and Percy grimaced as they remembered the story.

**I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar.**

"Did it?" Kylie asked.

"No," The demigods said simply.

**Luke looked up and managed a smile. "Don't worry about it, Percy. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."**

"Bullshit," Annabeth whispered.

**He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him—even if he was a counselor—should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed me into the cabin. He'd even stolen me some toiletries, which was the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.**

"All an act," Kylie mumbled.

**I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth ... twice, she said I might be 'the one.' She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"**

**Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."**

"Don't we all," Both the demigods said.

**"What do you mean?"**

**His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests.**

**Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until...somebody special came to the camp."**

"Awww, I'm special," Percy grinned.

"Yes you are," Annabeth said lovingly.

"_Ahem_, on with the story," Alison interjected before they could start kissing.

**"Somebody special?"**

**"Don't worry about it, kid," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."**

"Hey!" Annabeth shouted. She didn't like Luke talking about her like that.

**The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before.**

"Another hint that he's the son of Poseidon," Annabeth sighed.

**Luke yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"**

**The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.**

**We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods— and when I say out of the woods, I mean**_**straight**_**out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.**

**In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.**

**At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.**

"TMI," Kylie coughed.

"Oh grow up," Alison swatted her head.

**I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.**

**Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious-looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey-blond hair.**

Annabeth smiled at the thought of her siblings and mother.

**Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.**

**Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"**

**Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"**

**Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want—nonalcoholic, of course."**

**I said, "Cherry Coke."**

**The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid.**

**Then I had an idea. "**_**Blue**_**Cherry Coke."**

Annabeth laughed, "Everything's blue with you."

**The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.**

**I took a cautious sip. Perfect.**

**I drank a toast to my mother.**

"Aww, that's so cute," Kylie said.

**She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday...**

"You were already thinking that that early?" Annabeth smacked Percy.

"Hey! I had just lost my mom and found out I might be able to get her back, what would you do?" Percy explained.

**"Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.**

**I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion.**

**I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.**

**"Come on," Luke told me.**

**As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest straw berry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.**

**Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."**

**"You're kidding."**

**His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all-powerful being would like the smell of burning food.**

"It is a little weird," Percy agreed. "I mean, the smell is good and all, but not really satisfying."

**Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes."**

**I was next.**

"You make it sound like you're about to be sacrificed." Alison laughed.

**I wished I knew what god's name to say.**

**Finally, I made a silent plea.**_**Whoever you are, tell me. Please.**_

**I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames.**

**When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.**

**It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.**

"Have any tried?" Alison asked.

"I think Apollo did once, but he didn't last long." Annabeth said.

**When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.**

**Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats.**

"Ugh, he's so rude," Kylie sniffed.

**Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."**

**A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.**

**"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have a new camper today. Peter Johnson."**

"He's actually called me Percy twice now," Percy said proudly.

"Lucky, I've been there for nine years now and he still calls me Annabelle." Annabeth complained.

**Chiron murmured something.**

**"Er, Percy Jackson," Mr. D corrected. "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."**

**Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing-along.**

"Those are so much fun," Annabeth smiled. "Though, they're better when there's no titans trying to take over."

**We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.**

Percy smiled sadly as he remembered the simple days.

**Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.**

**My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.**

**When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.**

"Oh, the days where I didn't dream," Percy jokingly reminisced.

**That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood.**

**I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.**

"Duh duh duhhhh," Alison and Kylie said in sync.

All of them burst out laughing. "So it's ten thirty now, so we should read one more chapter then go to bed. Percy, you're going to have to sleep in the closet, sorry." Annabeth said.

"Okay," They all agreed.

"I'll read," Alison said. "**We Capture a Flag**."

* * *

**A/N: So sorry again, but I did post before the end of the month. I didn't correct it, so if there are any mistakes let me know. Thank you again for all of the great reviews, and have a nice spring break for everyone who has it either this week or next week!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO.**

* * *

"**We Capture a Flag,"**Alison read.

Everyone laughed as they thought about what was to come in this chapter.

**The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.**

**Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth,**

"Gods, that was torture," Percy exaggerated.

Annabeth elbowed him, "I made it especially hard for you, cause of our parents."

"No wonder I always had headaches," Percy grumbled. "Wait a second; you didn't even know my parent then!"

"I had my suspicions," Annabeth shrugged, "a daughter of Athena always knows."

**and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. **

"You got that right," Kylie laughed.

**I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English.**

"Which is still pretty hard," Percy complained.

**After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.**

**The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery,**

"Gods, that was also horrible," Percy whined

**but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.**

"Poor Chiron," Annabeth frowned.

**Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods.**

**But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.**

"More than a little," Percy mumbled.

**And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.**

**"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.**

**The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.**

"Yeah, my first week as a camper wasn't the best." Percy said.

**I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids,** **or as good at archery as the Apollo kids.**

"Not even close," Kylie laughed.

**I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork** **or—gods forbid— Dionysus's way with vine plants.**

"Thank the gods," Percy stated.

**Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.**

**Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. I would eat dinner with cabin eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad.**

**Nothing came. Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back...**

**I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes. So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something?**

Annabeth sighed, "Percy-"

Before Annabeth could finish, Percy interrupted, "I know I know, the gods have other stuff to worry about, but a war was started over this, remember?"

"How could I forget?" Annabeth half-smiled. "You did save my life like a million times."

"And I'll never regret it," Percy kissed Annabeth's nose.

**Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?**

**Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.**

"I'm glad you showed him," Alison grinned.

"Yeah, it must have been embarrassing for the best sword fighter in three-hundred eas to be beat by a first-time beginner." Kylie snickered.

**We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.**

"Great, his reflexes are great," Annabeth corrected.

"Thank you wise girl," Percy said staring lovingly into Annabeth's eyes.

**The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long.**

**Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.**

**We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.**

"That doesn't even make sense," Kylie muttered.

**"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."**

"Not anymore," Annabeth messed up Percy's hair.

"Hey!" Percy exclaimed, "That took me a solid five seconds to do!"

"Are you trying to impress someone? Last time I checked it took you only two seconds to do your hair?" Annabeth teased.

"What can I say," Percy shrugged, "you influenced me." He took Annabeth into his arms gave her a kiss on the head.

"Aww, you guys are just the cutest thing," Kylie squealed.

"Yeah, yeah," Alison grumbled. "Let's get this chapter over with so we can go to bed."

**"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.**

**The camper snorted.**

**Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised.**

**"Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!"**_**Whap!**_**"Lunge!"**_**Whap!**_**"Now, back!"**_**Whap!**_

Annabeth turned red as she grew angry, "But.. He could've.. arghhh"

"Annabeth, clam down," Percy comforted. "I still beat the shit out of him."

**By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.**

"One of my finest moments," Percy grinned proudly.

**Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward.**

**"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."**

**Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.**

All the girls laughed while Percy grumbled about how he was always the one chosen to be embarrassed.

**The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag.**

**He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.**

"I'm amazing at that technique," Percy boasted.

"But you can never beat me," Annabeth teased.

"Only cause I let you win," Percy confessed.

"Percy!" Annabeth exclaimed. "We need to actually fight I won't be able to get better. Plus I go easy on you and I still win," She smirked.

"Pssht, I could beat you will my eyes closed," Percy taunted.

"You wish!" Annabeth stuck out her tongue.

"_Ahem_, it's getting late..." Alison reminded them.

**"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."**

**He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.**

**"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"**

"No. I wasn't" Percy frowned.

**I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.**

_A change in his face?_Annabeth thought. _We should have known._

**The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right.**

**I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?**

**I tried the disarming maneuver.**

Everyone grinned in anticipation of the events about to occur.

**My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.**

_**Clang.**_

**Luke's sword rattled against the stones.**

**The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.**

"You should have ended it then," Annabeth sighed. "I would have saved a bunch of lives."

"But then he would have never realized his mistakes," Percy reminded her.

**The other campers were silent.**

**I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."**

"Why did you apologize?" Kylie asked.

"I thought I did something wrong." Percy said sheepishly.

**For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.**

**"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"**

**I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.**

**This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.**

**After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"**

**Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword..."**

"A lot of damage," Annabeth said reminiscing about the war.

**Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall.**

"I've gotten a lot better," Percy bragged.

**Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.**

**We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.**

**His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.**

"Aww. Poor Grover," Kylie said.

**"Fine," he said. "Just great."**

**"So your career's still on track?"**

**He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"**

**"Well... no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask.**

Annabeth started clapping. Kylie and Percy looked at her as it she was crazy, but Alison understood. "She's clapping because Percy did something right for once," She explained while giggling.

"Ohh," Percy understood. "Wait a second! I'm not always that stupid."

"Yes you are," Annabeth gave him a kiss. "But it's okay, that's why I like you."

**"He just said you had big plans, you know ... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"**

**Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment.** **He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."**

"That's so unfair of him," Alison complained.

"That's just Mr. D. Actually, he was being pretty nice. Most of the time, he would just say they failed," Annabeth said.

**My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"**

_**"Blaa-ha-ha!**_ **He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want**_**me**_**along?"**

"Because he's my best friend, that's why!" Percy exclaimed.

"Calm down Percy," Annabeth laughed, "We aren't arguing."

**"Of course I'd want you along!"**

**Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill."**

"I'm glad Grover has confidence now," Annabeth whispered to Percy.

**I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.**

**"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."**

**"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"**

**Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals.**

"Gods, I hate her," Annabeth cursed angrily.

**That's her husband's job.**

**When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."**

"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades," Annabeth and Percy said in a monotone.

"They can be really arrogant sometimes," Annabeth grumbled.

"Yeah, I'm Poseidon's son and even I know he can be really unwise." Percy said.

**"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."**

**"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."**

"Not fair," Apollo whined, but quickly closed his mouth at the stare from his two uncles and father.

**"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."**

**"Uh-huh."**

**"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."**

"He should get one," Alison said.

"Yeah, it's really not fair that he doesn't have one," Kylie agreed.

Percy and Annabeth didn't know what to say without giving away what happened.

"Uhh, yeah, really unfair," Annabeth said.

"Yeah," Percy hesitated. "What she said."

**"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here ..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."**

"I'm sure they could make it real cool looking," Kylie said. "With like black stone, Greek fire, and stuff like that."

**"But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"**

"Not anymore!" Percy grinned. "My daddy broke the oath and had ME!"

Annabeth looked at him weirdly, "You're acting like Tyson."

"Oh," Percy cleared his throat and lowered it as he said, "My bad."

Annabeth laughed, "now you're just acting stupid."

**Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably.**

**"About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes.**

"Good thing they didn't keep their word," Annabeth said looking lovingly at Percy.

"Actually Hades did," Percy said looking thoughtful, "which is ironic because he was the one being forced to make the promise by Zeus and Poseidon."

"Gasp!" Annabeth mockingly said, "Percy said a big word."

"Yeah, yeah it tends to happen sometimes," he laughed.

**Their children were just too powerful.**

"Yeah we are!" Percy yelled.

"Shhhh," Annabeth said, "We don't want my parents to come up here, remember?"

"Oh, right, sorry."

**They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."**

**Thunder boomed.**

**I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."**

**Grover nodded.**

**"And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"**

**Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon.**

"Thalia's awesome," Percy and Annabeth said at the same time.

"Thalia? The person that turned into a tree, Thalia?" Alison asked doubtfully.

"You'll find out later," Percy said absentmindedly.

**There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself.**

"I don't think I could either," Kylie joked.

**When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia ...** **well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."**

**"But that isn't fair.' It wasn't the little girl's fault."**

**Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods.**

Percy smiled smugly.

**They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath.**

**Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do.**

"Poor Grover," Alison sighed.

**He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."** **He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill.**

"According to that paragraph, Thalia died," Alison said, "so how do you know her Percy?"

"Magic," Percy said. They didn't realize he was being serious.

**As she died,** **Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."**

**I stared at the pine in the distance.**

**The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much.**

"Not true Percy," Annabeth said. "You had never fought before and you killed the Minotaur. That's a huge accomplishment."

"But she sacrificed so much to save you and Luke and I couldn't even save my own mother." Percy sighed.

**I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?**

"Don't blame yourself," Kylie said.

**"Grover," I said, "Have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"**

**"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."**

**"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"**

**"No. Never. Orpheus came close... . Percy, you're not seriously thinking—"**

**"No," I lied.**

**"I was just wondering. So ... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"**

"Nice change of topic," Annabeth snorted.

"What can I say?" Percy grinned. "I am a master at changing topics."

"Sure…"

**Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."**

**"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."**

"Ego alert!"

**Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't...Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you**_**were**_—**you know—you'd never**_**ever**_**be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"**

"She's a goddess," Annabeth pointed out

Everyone laughed at his mistake.

**I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.**

**That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.**

**At last, it was time for capture the flag.**

**When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.**

**Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.**

Annabeth smiled as she thought about her cabin.

**I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"**

**"Yeah."**

**"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"**

**"Not always," he said. "But often."**

**"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?"**

"What you guys do is way cooler," Alison said.

"Thanks," Annabeth replied, "it was Athena's idea."

**He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."**

**"Whose side are we on?"**

**He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight.**

"Foreshadowing much," Kylie muttered.

"How did we not realize?" Annabeth said.

"Well," Percy laughed, "You were sort of in love with him."

"No," Annabeth corrected. "I thought I was in love with him, but it's nothing compared to what I feel about you now."

"So are you saying you love me?" Percy asked.

"Maybe," Annabeth said before she kissed him.

"Aww, you guys are totes presh," Kylie said ruining the moment.

"Totes presh?" They asked.

"Totally precious," Kylie said, "duhh."

**"We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And**_**you**_**are going to help."**

"And he did," Annabeth whispered.

"I'm still mad you offered me up as bait," Percy said.

"You can never stay mad at me," Annabeth teased.

"No. You're right. I can't." Percy said seriously.

**The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins.**

**Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.**

**Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them.**

Percy frowned as he remember what happened to Castor.

**Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive.**

"Except for Katie when dealing with the Stolls," Annabeth snickered.

**Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped.**

"Sounds like you," Alison said talking to Kylie.

"Yeah it does," she said lost in thought.

Percy and Annabeth didn't notice their short conversation.

**Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem.**

**That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.**

**Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.**

**"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"**

**He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.**

**"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"**

"No, it's just for show," Annabeth said sarcastically.

**Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."**

**My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.**

**Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"**

**We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.**

**I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."**

**She kept marching.**

"Ooh, the first cold shoulder," Percy smirked.

Annabeth glared at him.

**"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"**

**Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.**

"You thought I was a son of Hermes?" Percy asked.

"Well you weren't showing the traits of other gods." Annabeth shrugged.

**"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"**

**"Border patrol, whatever that means."**

**"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."**

"A plan to kill me," Percy said.

**She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.**

"Rejected," Kylie laughed.

**"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."**

**It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view**_**.**_**Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.**

**Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot.**

"You looked like one too," Annabeth grinned.

**The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.**

**There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?**

**Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.**

**Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.**

**Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.**

Annabeth frowned. _So it was watching the whole time._

**I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.**

**Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.**

**On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.**

**"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.**

"Ha! I was the one that creamed them," Percy bragged.

**Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.**

**They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.**

**I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur. They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.**

**Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back.**

"I'm glad I broke that spear," Percy stated.

**Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.**

Annabeth paled. She didn't get their quick enough. _No wonder he was mad. Sorry Seaweed Brain._

**They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.**

**"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."**

"No I love your hair," Annabeth protested.

"Calm down, wise girl," Percy said, "Me and my hair are okay."

"My hair and I," Annabeth corrected.

"Whatever," Percy groaned.

**I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.**

**"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."**

"She should have been," Annabeth said coldly.

**"The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.**

"Don't give away the position" Annabeth smacked Percy upside the head.

**"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."**

**"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.**

Everyone laughed.

"No shit," Alison said.

**Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-kebabbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.**

**Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.**

**"No maiming," I managed to say.**

**"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."**

"That's a horrible punishment," Kylie said outraged.

**He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash.**

"Thank gods," Annabeth sighed.

"You already knew I was okay," Percy said confused.

"I don't like reading about you getting beat up," Annabeth objected.

**They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.**

"I love water," Percy said dreamily.

**Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.**

"Wow," Kylie laughed. "The water does him wonders."

**Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.**

"Her reaction was so funny!" Percy laughed.

"I'm glad I wasn't there for the aftermath, though," Alison said.

**"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"**

"That's Nico," Percy said.

**She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.**

**Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.**

**"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."**

**They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders.**

"And Luke still got the credit," Alison grumbled.

"He did get the flag," Kylie pointed out.

**Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.**

**The game was over. We'd won.**

**I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."**

**I looked, but she wasn't there.**

**"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.**

"Do you have it with you?" Kylie asked.

"Yeah it's over on the shelf," Annabeth said. "Wanna try it on?"

"Sure." Kylie grabbed the hat and put it on and vanished.

"Woah," Alison said. "Where'd she go?"

"Over here," Kylie's voice giggled. A pillow lifted itself up from the bed and hit Alison in the face.

"Ahh," she screamed. Alison tried to hit Alison with a pillow but she was gone. "Where'd you go?"

"Here." The air shimmered as Kylie took off the hat. "That thing I awesome."

"I know," Annabeth grinned. "We should finish the chapter though.

**I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."**

**Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."**

**"A plan to get me pulverized."**

**"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."**

"Thank the gods." Percy mumbled. "I almost died."

"Not even," Annabeth laughed. "Even Clarisse wouldn't kill you cause she got embarrassed."

**Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"**

**"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"**

"Smart mouth," Annabeth smiled.

**"No. It**_**was**_**a sword cut. Look at it."**

**The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.**

**"I—I don't get it," I said.**

**Annabeth was thinking hard.**

**I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."**

**"What—"**

**"Just do it."**

"Already bossing him around," Alison laughed. "Nice"

**I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.**

**"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is**_**not**_**good. I didn't want ... I assumed it would be Zeus..."**

**Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.**

**The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly:**_**"Stand ready! My bow!"**_

**Annabeth drew her sword.**

**There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.**

"Hellhound, not Mrs. O'Leary," Percy shuddered.

"Who's Mrs. O'Leary?" Kylie inquired.

"My pet hellhound," Percy smiled.

"Your pet what?" Kylie asked. "How'd you get a pet hellhound?"

"Long story," Percy grinned. "I might tell you later."

**It was looking straight at me.**

**Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"**

"Glad you didn't listen," Annabeth muttered.

"I was a little freaked out," Percy shrugged.

**She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.**

"It didn't burst into dust?" Alison said. "Weird."

**By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.**

**Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.**

"Thank you Chiron," Percy said.

"Um, Percy?" Annabeth said. "Chiron's not here right now.

"I know."

"Okay then," Annabeth said looking at him weirdly.

_**"Di immortales!"**_ **Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't ... they're not supposed to ..."**

**"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."**

**Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.**

**Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"**

"Yeah," Percy said, "I summoned it so it could kill me. Even I'm not that stupid."

**"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.**

**We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.**

"Oh," Alison said, "I get it now."

**"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."**

**"I'm okay."**

**"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."**

"So bossy," Percy complained.

"Stop complaining." Annabeth ordered.

"There it is again."

"Percy!"

"Yes, ma'am," Percy saluted her.

"Don't be smart with me," Annabeth warned.

"Never," Percy kissed her.

**I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.**

**Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.**

**"Look, I—I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry..."**

"Stop being sorry," Alison laughed. "Gods you're so weird."

**But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.**

**"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."**

**By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.**

**"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is**_**really**_**not good."**

Percy smirked at Annabeth. "You're right, it's amazing!"

"Not what she meant," Kylie sighed.

**"It is determined," Chiron announced.**

**All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.**

Percy snorted, "I'll bet they weren't."

**"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.**

**"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."**

Alison closed the book, "Chapter's over, let's go to bed."

Annabeth looked deep in thought, "I have an idea." She grabbed her Yankees cap and shoved it on Percy's head. "Now you don't have to go in the closet," She smirked. "You can have the floor."

Annabeth, Alison, and Kylie shared the bed, while Percy made a bed on blankets on the floor. "Night all," he said.

"Night," they replied.

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**A/N: So sorry again for the wait. I would like to thank Allen R who told me about the review problem, so I won't hold it against you. I hope to update sooner, but considering my last couple updates I doubt it will be soon... Please review!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: I am so so so so so so sorry! The end of the school year went by reallllly fast and before I knew it, it had been a month since I last updated and I hadn't even started the next chapter. So, I am sorry about the wait and I hope you like this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own PJO**

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Annabeth woke up the next morning and immediately went to the bathroom. On her way back, she noticed that Alison and Kylie were still asleep. Suddenly, she tripped over something large and invisible: Percy. Annabeth took the Yankees cap off his head, and giggled quietly as she rolled him over onto his back. Surprisingly, Percy was still not awake. She loved how peaceful Percy looked when he was sleeping; it was amazing how different he looked out on the battlefield. She stroked his hair for a little bit, but decided she was hungry. Annabeth put the Yankees cap back on Percy's head and stood up. When she looked around, Kylie and Alison were staring at her silently. Annabeth pointed towards the door and they went out into the hall.

"Were you guys watching me?" Annabeth whispered.

"No," they chimed at the same time. Both Alison and Kylie looked guilty so Annabeth stared them down until one of them cracked. "Okay, maybe for a little bit, but you guys are so cute!" Kylie explained.

"Shh," Annabeth hissed. "Let's go downstairs so we can talk." Her stomach grumbled. "Plus I'm really hungry."

When they got downstairs Annabeth opened the door to the refrigerator and checked for food. "So we got milk for cereal, some eggs, and microwavable bacon. Just take whatever; I'm going to have scrambled eggs with bacon."

"Yay! I love bacon," Kylie said. "But I never eat it because my dad thinks that just because bacon is a pig's ass that it shouldn't be eaten."

"Well, if you say it like that it sounds disgusting," Alison scrunched her nose. "I think I'll pass on it, thank you."

"Come on," Kylie laughed, "I bet once you smell it you won't be able to resist it."

"Nope." Alison said. "I won't. Not this time." She marched over to the cabinets and opened one of the doors. "So Annabeth," she said, "where's the cereal? And bowls? And silverware?"

Annabeth laughed and said, "You've been here enough to remember where everything is, haven't you?" She got out everything needed for cereal.

"It's been a while," Alison whined.

"It's been like a three weeks," Kylie pointed out.

"Still, three weeks is a long time." Alison poured her cheerios in her bowl and sat down at the counter. "So, anyways, what are we gonna do about you-know-who?"

"You can call him Percy, you know that right? No one is listening, unless my annoying brothers are outside this door listening to everything we say." Annabeth laughed. "But trust me, they aren't."

"Are you, like, using your super awesome demigod powers right now?" Kylie wondered.

"Um… no, it doesn't work like that. And we prefer half-blood. I can tell they aren't there because I can see them playing outside." Annabeth pointed out the window at her brothers. Alison and Kylie looked out to see Matthew and Bobby tackling each other.

"Damn, those would have been some freakishly awesome powers," Kylie sighed. "But Alison is right, how are we gonna hide him? It'll be easy to hide him from your parents, but Matthew and Bobby snoop way too much for Percy to be safe from them finding out."

"I don't know, we'll just have to risk it." Annabeth sighed. "We could make him wear my invisibility cap all day, but that wouldn't be fair to him."

"Or us," Kylie said.

"Why?" Alison said confused.

"I'm sorry, Annabeth, but your boyfriend is serious eye candy and it would be a pity if we couldn't see him," Kylie stated bluntly.

"I can't argue with that statement," Annabeth shrugged. "But you should have seen him when he was twelve. He was so short! I remember when we first met and I was so much taller than him for the first two years. He was so tiny, especially after we visited Crusty's." Annabeth looked lost in thought.

"I totally thought Percy was agreeing with Crusty at the beginning," Alison said, "but he actually came up with a good plan."

"Yeah," Annabeth agreed, "Grover and I got so worried he had suddenly lost his mind. Percy is normally really dumb, but in times of danger, he can come up with crazy, risky plans that end up working. But one day, I swear he's gonna give me a heart attack…"

"What's gonna give you a heart attack?" Helen asked as she walked through the door into the kitchen.

The three girls jumped; they hadn't noticed her walking in. "If I keep eating all this bacon," Annabeth stuttered. An awkward silence entered the room. "Um... well we're gonna go upstairs, bye!" Annabeth, Kylie, and Alison ran out of the room.

"Annabeth!" Helen yelled. Annabeth slunk back into the kitchen with Kylie and Alison behind her.

"What," she asked innocently.

"I was just wondering what you were going to do today," Helen said.

"Not much, hang out, watch a movie, read a book, I don't know," Annabeth replied.

"Great," Helen grinned, "You can play with your brothers, while your dad and I go to a function for his new airplane thing."

"But Helen-" Annabeth complained.

"No buts, you can do whatever you want, but you have to include your brothers."

"Argh, fine." Annabeth grumbled. "Let me just go brush my hair."

As Alison, Kylie, and Annabeth walked up the stairs, Kylie laughed. "You? Annabeth? Wanting to brush your hair? That's a first."

"I don't actually want to brush my hair, but we need to warn Percy that Matthew and Bobby are going to join our reading." Annabeth explained.

"Are they really?" Alison wondered.

"Well, I'd rather I didn't piss off my step-mom, we've been getting along better recently. And if that means trusting that Matthew and Bobby won't tell on us, then so be it." Annabeth said.

"Wow, I would not be that nice if my dad married someone else then had kids and treated me like dirt," Kylie admired.

"Trust me," Annabeth said, "it took a long time to even be able to stand being in the same room as Helen." They arrived in Annabeth room. "Percy, wake up." Annabeth said. She walked toward the center of the room until she hit something hard and invisible. Annabeth felt around a little bit until she found what she was looking for. It looked like she grabbed nothing, but when she took her hand away, Percy was lying on the floor and she had a Yankees cap in her hand.

"I swear, the Achilles curse has made him such a lazy ass." Annabeth muttered.

"What curse?" Alison asked.

"Curse? I didn't say anything about a curse." Annabeth said innocently. "Now help me wake him up."

Alison and Kylie looked at her doubtfully, but helped her anyways. They tried to poke him, even slapping him, but it was of no use. Then Kylie had an idea. She went to the bathroom and filled a cup with cold water. She went back to where Annabeth and Alison were sitting and smiled triumphantly. "This always works on me," she said.

"Kylie, I'm not so sure you-"Annabeth tried to stop her, but it was too late. Kylie poured the water on Percy. It did wake him up, but being a son of Poseidon, Percy quickly dried himself and because he was still half asleep, his instincts send all the water back onto the attacker.

"Ahh! That's cold," Kylie yelled. Annabeth and Alison could not stop laughing.

"Wha- What happened," Percy asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"You just, you-" Annabeth tried to say, but couldn't stay sober enough to complete her thought.

"You poured water all over Kylie!" Alison said through her giggles.

"Oh, sorry," Percy said embarrassed. "Let me help you with that." With one touch he dried all the water on Kylie.

Kylie glared at Alison and Annabeth. "Why didn't you get me a towel or something instead of just laughing at me?"

"I tried to warn you," Annabeth giggled, "but you wouldn't listen."

"You did not!"

"Yes I did! I told you that you shouldn't. Or I was going to at least." Annabeth explained.

"It's true," Alison snickered. "That wasn't very smart to pour water on someone who can control it."

"If he wasn't able to it would have been a very good idea," Kylie pointed out. "Thanks for drying me though, Percy."

"No problem. So Annabeth, do you have any food?" Percy asked.

"Of course, seaweed brain," Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I've known you for six years; I know how much you like to eat." She threw the bag of bacon she made at him. "I hope that's enough."

"Thanks!" Percy said as he opened the bag and started devouring the pieces.

"One more thing, Percy," Annabeth added. "My brothers are going to be joining when we read the next chapter my mom is making us do stuff with them, and I really want to finish this book."

"Okay, fine, whatever," Percy said still focusing on his bacon.

"I don't even think he heard what I said." Annabeth said to Alison and Kylie. "Oh well, I'll go get Matthew and Bobby, if you want to tell him. No that he'll actually listen until after he finishes eating," she rolled her eyes again.

Annabeth walked outside, "Matthew, Bobby? Are you out here?" She yelled.

"We're over here, what do you want?" Bobby replied. Or maybe it was Matthew, Annabeth could never tell their voices apart.

"Helen wants you guys to hang out with Alison, Kylie and me the rest of the day. Is that okay with you?" Annabeth asked.

"Of course," Matthew grinned evilly, "anything to spend time with our big sis."

"Great," muttered Annabeth, "they're totally gonna tattle tale."

"What? Us? Tattle tale? Never," Matthew and Bobby said at the same time.

"Come on, I have a bit of a surprise for you." Annabeth stalked back inside the house angrily. Her brothers were definitely going to ruin the reading, she thought.

"Whoa! What is he doing here?" Matthew asked.

"He came to visit us because we're reading a book about his life." Annabeth explained.

"Sweet," said Matthew and Bobby. "When did he get here?"

"Last night," Annabeth mumbled.

"So he spent the night…" Bobby said.

"In your room," Matthew finished.

"I'm telling mom." They sang.

"You can't," Kylie boasted, "your mom is gone for the day, and we're in charge."

"Come on," Annabeth pleaded, "for once can you just be nice to me. We're even letting you stay with us and read this book."

Matthew and Bobby looked at each other, "Okay," Matthew said, "but only if you do what we say for a whole day and the day is our choice."

Annabeth considered the proposition. "Fine," she relented, "but we're starting this book now, and we are going to finish it today, no exceptions." She looked pointedly at Percy, Matthew and Bobby. "Who wants to read?"

"I will," Kylie said, "**I Am Offered a Quest**."

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**A/N: I just wanted to let you know, if you didn't already, that Rick Riordan wrote a short story crossover about Percy Jackson meeting Carter Kane called Son of Sobek. It was AMAZING even if it was short, but still, not many authors will write crossover stories. Even so, you should still read it! It's an e-book btw. And it has a sneak peek of the first chapter in House of Hades! Which was also amazing fyi.**

**Tambien, The Sea of Monsters is coming out in August. I know the first movie was horrible for the people who read the book, the the second looks like it follows the plot more. Plus Annabeth is _finally _a blond and they included Clarisse. The first movie had almost nothing in common with the book, yet somehow they are trying to make the second more like it. Hmm that sounded really repetitive:/ **

**P.S. Logan Lerman is hot**

**P.P.S. Please Review!**


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